The TikTok star shining a light on charity shops

A social media star and artist who upcycles charity shop items for her one million Instagram and TikTok followers each week has taken the project to her parents' home town for the first time.

Sophie Tea, 32, visited the Sue Ryder store in Tavistock in Devon for her Charity Shop Friday project, actually on bank holiday Monday, 18 April.

On this occasion she chose a wedding hat, which was then taken back to the shop by the end of the day where people were given raffle tickets to win.

The shop owner said more than 100 people travelled from across the South West with many buying other items, "more than doubling" takings for a normal day.

The project has been running for 34 weeks and has proved hugely popular, and her next planned trip is to Paris.

She said it was an honour to shine a light on the work charities do, as well as meeting the volunteers and her followers.

"Over the weeks I have cards from different charities saying the day I came in was the biggest day they have had in terms of sales in store," she said.

"It's not massive amounts of help but it is something I can show up consistently and do.

"It also drives people in to stores, back into the high street to spend money in the local community."

Being in her parents' home town she was able to use their house to paint the hat, before going back to the store for the end of the day.

She said: "It was actually quite nice to be like 'Mum, I'm making a mess of your kitchen table again like I did when I was little.'"

Adam Corrigan, shop manager at Sue Ryder, a charity supporting people with palliative care and bereavement, said a bank holiday weekend in the town was usually quiet.

Ms Tea arrived and bought the hat at about 13:30 BST and by 14:30, Mr Corrigan said customers were "pouring in", with it "packed" by 16:00.

He described the atmosphere as like a "concert" with people queuing down the street, which he has never seen before.

"People were really excited she was in the area, and we had people travelling from Bideford, Okehampton and buying bits of bric-a-brac," he said.

"The atmosphere was fantastic, and they completely cleared my bric-a-brac shelves, especially things that are usually quite hard to sell like the glassware."

The charity shop manager said: "She didn't only make a difference to us, but to the whole of the town centre.

"I equated it to more than double to what we would usually take in one day and that would pay for around 20 hours of vital care for either palliative or providing help with grieving, which is what Sue Ryder is all about."

Ms Tea said: "It was special to know that was the direct consequence of hosting it there.

"I'm honoured to be doing this work.

"I love painting and upcycling things, some people do say on my Instagram I have made things worse, which I wouldn't not agree with, but you can't knock me for trying."

The winner of the wedding hat raffle, or Easter Bonnet as Ms Tea called it, was Sophie Roberts from Tavistock who plans to wear it to two weddings as her "key piece and accessory".

She has been following the artist for about a year and "loves" her artwork, as well as her other content.

"She has a lovely energy and positivity about her," she said.

"In terms of her artwork, I love the techniques she uses and her beautiful florals she tends to do on the object she buys, as well as her portraits - they are just beautiful absolutely stunning."

Ms Tea said she was best known for her nude artwork, after studying the female form, and has been painting for about 10 years.

She also expressed how art can "heal and save people".

"I feel like art has this overarching elitism that has a smell to it and I'm trying to tip that on its head because you don't need money to enjoy artwork, you don't need fancy contacts in the art industry," she said.

"I have none of them and I think it's about understanding art is for everyone and it can save people if you let it."

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