Artist among first to sell work on TikTok Shop

An artist who was born in Wolverhampton and raised in Birmingham is one of the first creators to officially sell her work through the social media app TikTok.

Sophie Tea has built a following of more than 1.3 million on the site, where she shares her creative process, paints live and engages directly with collectors.

To launch TikTok Shop's new fine art category, Tea debuted a collection of original oil paintings for sale on the app and completed one painting live on camera.

Tea said she had been "petitioning TikTok Shop to make this category" for about three months.

"I believe the future of shopping lies with this QVC-style live shopping experience, because I think consumers are now demanding more from the people that they're buying from," she said.

Tea also has a popular "Charity Shop Friday" series on social media, where she transforms second-hand finds into art.

"It's about giving back. It's about finding bargains. It's about making art out of something mundane. It's about bringing young people into being advocates for the arts," she said.

Tea has also returned to her Midlands roots as part of the series.

"One of my very, very early ones was Solihull and Telford. I've done one near Wolverhampton, which was a massive one," she said.

Tea began painting in 2014 with no formal training.

"I've always been creative but I guess as life and education went on, especially into high school and then college and uni, my teachers said 'I know you can paint but maybe don't consider a career as an artist', so it was weirdly pushed out of me, if you like, through the schooling system," she said.

"Then when I graduated university I found it again."

She added: "I had a moment where I was travelling in India just before I was due to start my corporate job as a consultant in London and I was running out of money. I asked the manager if I could paint and return for a free stay at this hostel because I saw loads of graffiti all over the wall and just had the idea.

"Honestly it was at that moment, so much later on, that I was like, 'Oh my God, I just enjoyed this so much. I just feel like I need to make a career out of it."

Tea said her hope for the new TikTok shop category was that it would "open the door further for other artists to sell their work independently and experiment with new platforms."

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