For a long time, I didn’t think art and God could mix. Wearing anything that showed my faith felt awkward, especially around people I knew. Why? Because that would mean having a conversation I didn’t know how to start.

It didn’t help that most of what I saw were cheesy slogans like “Ketchup with Jesus” or “Need an ark? I Noah guy.” ??? Everything was cheesy or impersonal, the kind of faith I didn’t want to represent, surface-level and distant.

So let’s take you back.

When I was a senior in college, majoring in digital art during the pandemic. Days blurred into one another. Log into Zoom. Stare at a screen. Take notes. Disengage. Log off. And repeat. Everything felt still. Colorless. Quiet.

The projects I worked on were fine, but something was missing. A deeper meaning, a sense of purpose behind what I was creating. I felt disconnected.

I remember praying and asking God to bring my creativity back. One night, I opened my sketchbook, and somehow, drawing felt different, as if God was slowly giving me back the color I’d lost.

(I know, so cheesy I'M SORRY.)

When the world reopened after COVID, life grew loud again. The designs I once sketched with excitement became reminders of what I hadn’t finished. Doubt settled in, and the fear of failing whispered that maybe some dreams were safer unfinished.

So I let those drawings sit.

For five years.

For five years, I ran like Jonah (minus the whole whale part) from what I knew God had placed in my heart.

In July 2024, I finally stopped running, took a deep breath, and decided to walk toward what He’d been calling me to all along.

That’s when Water & Clay started to take shape.

Our prayer is that when you wear anything from Water & Clay, it does more than match your shoes. We hope it sparks something, a conversation, curiosity, or even just a moment to pause and think. Something that points back to Jesus, the Water that gives life.

Water and Clay's name comes from two verses:

Isaiah 64:8
But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our Potter. We are all the work of Your hand.

and

John 4:10
Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’

you = breathing clay.

Jesus = the Water that gives life.

Without water, clay dries out and hardens. With it, it can be shaped again.

That’s what this brand is really about, being in the hands of the Potter. Letting Him add the Water, and learning how He works with even the messy, broken, doubtful and rebellious parts of us all. This brand is a picture of the relationship between water and clay, and how, in the Potter’s hands, we are transformed into something purposeful and alive.

This isn’t just for believers. It’s for anyone willing to be shaped, to let the Potter’s hands bring life to even the parts we thought were useless.

At the end of the day, we’re just clay in the Potter’s hands, grateful for what He’s doing in us, through us, and for the chance to share a glimpse of the Water that gives life along the way.

There’s more ahead for Water & Clay — this is just the beginning.

It’s funny, really, when you think about it, the parts we once ran from are often where life is found.

We move forward in obedience.

Not perfectly, but faithfully.

Trusting that what we carry, it was never ours to begin with.

With love,
the clay ♡