This is a story all about how…wait, I’m not will smith?!

Oh hey y’all – howdy, welcome, what up, and all that good stuff.

My name is Rachel, and I am the hands, heart, brains, brawn, and wild that thrives behind every beat of the beautiful rhythm that has become Black Water Heart Design. I’m a single mom, I’m a full time abortion care rockstar, I’m a business owner, I’m a hurricane, I’m a lover and a fighter, I curse like a sailor. I yam what I yam, and I love every single part of me, because it has come together here for your eyes.

So how did this little gamble begin?

For as long as I can remember, art has been a part of my life. My mom will tell you I have always been what she calls “artsy fartsy”, and the rest of us call “creative”. I used to doodle in all my margins, I used to spend hours with crayons and sidewalk chalk, and in my heyday, I even (and I’m definitely dating myself here but…shout out to all the nineties babies who also remember this gem) told myself I was going to go on the Nickelodeon show “Figure it Out”…and that my talent would be that I could write my name 43 different ways. I didn’t know it then, but I already had the lettering bug.

Later on in my life, I would decorate elaborate Torah verses for a course in Calligraphy at my Hebrew school – yes, you read that right – and I would decorate words and phrases and I couldn’t explain what it was that I was doing. And then social media was born, and one day late in 2016, I saw my first lettering video.

From there, as they say, the rest was history.

This crazy journey has led me to start this little baby business that I am so tickled to share with you. I have made wedding invitations, signs for nurseries, ornaments for Christmas trees, signs for homes, cups for coffee and wine and everything in between…I have pretty much lettered on just about any surface you can imagine. I have bought myself the tools, I have spent hours and hours of practice, and it has all come to its culmination here.

I originally started out on my own under the name “BrushStrokes Creative”, thinking that was so clever and kitschy and rolled off the tongue, but I didn’t know just how much I had to learn. So over the last year and change I have really sat and thought about what I want to represent as a brand and in myself.

What you see here is the result of that introspection.

What you see on my instagram is a result of that research.

Black Water Heart Design is more than just a company to me. It’s my soul out here for you to see. It’s a little bit sassy, a little mama bear, a little bit soft, but a whole lot of raw and real energy.

So, I hope you’re buckled in for the ride.

Feel free to poke around a little bit, and to shoot me a message if you’ve got questions, if you want something pretty, or even if you just want to say hey and see what the fuck is up in my life.

I may or may not be looking forward to hearing from you.

Who knows?

I’ll never tell.

Xo, Love, and all that other shit,

Rachel