Sophie Holt on selling wholesale, sharing a studio, and prioritising play

You know that feeling when you keep seeing the same artist's work in every shop?

That's exactly what happened during my recent holiday - I kept spotting the same distinctive ceramics everywhere I went. The work was so recognisable and impossible to ignore that I knew I had to track down the artist behind it.

That artist is Sophie Holt, an artist and illustrator with a real love for clay. Born in New Zealand but raised in The Netherlands studying Graphic Design, she returned to discover her roots and fell in love with the country all over again. Since setting up Studio Soph in 2015, she's been making a living creating art.

In this episode, Sophie breaks down wholesale in a way that actually makes sense - how to approach retailers, build genuine relationships, and why working in collaborative studios has been massive for her business. She also shares why focusing on play is crucial for any artist and how being around other creatives taught her most of her business tricks.

Her diverse range spans ceramics, stationery, and textiles, proving you can build a recognisable brand across different mediums. After nearly a decade of Studio Soph, Sophie's living proof that you can turn your passion into profit while staying true to your creative vision!

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Hollie Arnett: Welcome, Sophie! I would love to know about how you started your business. I read that you set up Studio Soph in 2015 after you came back to New Zealand. Tell me about how you started your business and what made you decide to start doing it?

Sophie Holt: I actually started selling handmade things in the Netherlands when I was about 17-18 years old. We had the old Tupperware parties with my mum and a bunch of her friends. I did t-shirts and was sewing some bits and pieces. I felt like "Oh, this is really cool to do this full time." That's where I developed the passion for it.

I came to New Zealand in 2008 and was working different jobs. Then I got my son at 22 and had so much time left but was really missing being creative, so I started making things again. I had old retro plates from op shops and would just make really crazy drawings on them and sell them at markets. Then I joined a pottery club, and from that moment, Studio Soph.

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Hollie Arnett: Amazing! I always love hearing from creatives about how they started things and it's almost always oh, I was creative when I was younger, and then I came back to it. It's fun to hear! When Studio Soph officially started here, you started selling at markets. Is that the main way you started selling your work?

Sophie Holt: Yes, I lived in Christchurch and did lots of markets at the art centre. It's fantastic because you create a little community of other artists. I moved here after the quakes and found out about the great Christmas market in Nelson. Paula and Rachel who have the Little Beehive in Nelson (it's like a little co-op) asked me "Oh, would you like to join a co-op?" and I'm like, yeah, of course! I started selling my work at that shop there, and from that moment my business grew tremendously.

Hollie Arnett: Amazing! That was one of the main things I wanted to ask you about was selling your work because for people listening, I found Sophie's work when I went down to visit in March and it felt like in almost every shop that I went in, your work was in there. And I was like so impressed! It was great because I had seen your work, I'd talked myself out of buying something and then I went somewhere else and I was like, no, now I have to buy something.

So tell me about how, since obviously it was great that they reached out and asked you to be a part of that shop since then, how have you gotten your work into more shops and increased your wholesale business?

Sophie Holt: The Little Beehive was a really big one, and that was enough for me to keep up with because ceramics take quite a long time drying. At the time I didn't have my own kiln yet, so I was depending on the pottery club. The next step was having my own kiln and then it started to grow. After the Beehive, Helen from Inc. Design Store reached out so I formed a relationship with her.

I have my handmade cups that I mainly keep local. I sell them at Toad Hall Motueka and on my website. A few years ago I started working with Tikitibu and they do manufacturing and distribution. So I also have some ceramic cups and other products with them, and they do all of the distribution, trade shows and stuff.

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Hollie Arnett: They must be a really great, helpful way to expand the products you can make and the people you can reach. I was curious about how, like obviously you have the clay, the pottery stuff, but you also have the prints, clothing, stationery, like so many different things now. So is that mostly done through Tikitibu? What are you doing versus what is Tikitibu handling for you?

Sophie Holt: I've got one of my best friends who is also my studio assistant. I hire her for 10 hours a week and she builds all the shapes that I design. I've got someone very locally here, I call him Peter Potter, and he's a thrower and he throws all my shapes. I just hand paint everything and fire it at home.

I love collaborating. My friend Paula, who's also owner of the Little Beehive, she's a seamstress and we collaborated on doing coats. I hand paint them. The idea was to become like a walking canvas. The prints and cards, I often hand paint them, or I use Procreate.

With Tikitibu, I've got new cups available which is really exciting. We've produced beautiful handbags, notebooks, a stainless steel drink bottle, and a takeaway cup. It's so much fun. I make each product by hand so it's good to have a mix of those two things and not have your eggs in one basket. Different income streams this way.

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Hollie Arnett: It must be fun to think about “Oh, what's a new product we could work on and how can I adapt my work to go on this new product in a certain way?” Like a handbag or a bottle, what does my work look like on that?

It’s also smart to get help, as you said, with some of the things that don't necessarily rely on, like getting help with someone to throw the shapes or help with the distribution. Those are things that you don't necessarily need to be doing, but what you need to be working on is the things that make it Studio Soph, so thinking of the ideas and then drawing or hand painting.

What would you say have been either or both of your most successful products or like your favourites? What are the ones that are best for you as a business?

Sophie Holt: My most popular one is my 'F*ck Off' mug. I made that one in a time where there weren't any rude words to be found anywhere in New Zealand. I remember being quite nervous about it. People loved it and it's really fun to see people's reactions. They either absolutely start laughing or people are like, oh no, I hate it. I've been making it for at least 8-9 years now and it's still my most bestselling mug EVER.

My favourite is so difficult because it changes with what I'm working on. At the moment I just designed a new candle. It’s a woman and a man candle that stands up on the wall and a little tealight goes in it.

Hollie Arnett: Exciting! Maybe when this podcast is out, everyone can go check them out. I have one of your mugs that says 'Tough Titties' and has boobies on the other side, and I love her. She's great. You have so many cool products.

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Where I originally saw your work was at Zappekin. It's like a collective art space, right? With multiple artists in there. You run like markets and stuff in there as well. Tell me all about Zappekin!

Sophie Holt: Zappekin is a beautiful, great old fruit picking shed here. We started maybe four years ago as a group of artists who, like us, you're very solitary when you're working. I never see any humans, like I'm mostly on my own. We thought it would be cool to have a shared studio space altogether. It has so much character. We were working there and then we were like, oh, why don't we start a gallery in the summertime? It's only open to the public as a gallery in the summer, so maybe three months of the year and then maybe one market a year. Then we have artists in residence as well.

I currently don't work there anymore. I work from home now because I noticed with clay, driving it up and down was too scary for me.

Hollie Arnett: I love it! I can imagine why you don't do it in the winter because I can imagine an old apple shed could be very cold. But it's cool to have the gallery space and the connections. Obviously you're not working there now, but your stuff is in there. How has being part of something like that helped your business?

Sophie Holt: I think it's mostly just having other artists to talk to and what they struggle with, and bouncing back ideas. I don't have any colleagues as such so that is like the replacement. You're not alone in that way. You can help other people and then other people can help you too.

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Hollie Arnett: It's often that there are lots of very practical things that we talk about that are helpful as businesses. But yeah, you're right in that just being around other people and having the support and knowing you’re not alone and having to figure things out alone, and you can talk to other humans. It’s helpful and makes a big difference.

For anyone listening, if you are around in the Nelson region, definitely go check it out in the summer. It's incredible and there are like, I don't even know how many specific artists there are, but there's a ton of different artists in there and the work is amazing. I definitely have to hold myself back from buying all the things when I come. So highly recommended!

So you've grown your business through the wholesale side of things, through having Zappekin, through these different things. You've also grown your audience online. Like even just on Instagram you have about 15,000 followers. What do you think has helped you the most with growing your social media audience?

Sophie Holt: I've been quite slack lately with my social media. I post when I'm feeling inspired to post, I'm not really like "oh, I have to post once a week." I just use hashtags and sometimes people share my work from some of those accounts who share other artists' work. Back in the day, The Jealous Curator shared my work and so many followers came from that because she has a massive following. Every now and then giveaways help too.

Hollie Arnett: Has there been anything outside of social media, like other ways of marketing or growing your business that have helped a lot or that have been really good for you?

Sophie Holt: I think with Zappekin and with the Little Beehive and doing markets, you get lots of time with your customers, you're right in front of them and I always notice that people really like that. Even though I don't really do markets anymore, I still work at the Beehive in the summer and being in the space is really good.

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Hollie Arnett: It also sounds like getting your work in all of these shops, you said, was a lot like meeting the person, connecting with them, same with Zappekin - it sounds like just connecting with other people has been really helpful for you building relationships. It can be easy to just be an artist alone at home but connecting with other people sounds like it's helped a lot too.

You mentioned that you obviously used to do a lot of markets and now you don't really do markets anymore. I know there are lots of artists who are either thinking about doing markets or they're doing a lot of markets now and are thinking about not doing anymore markets. What kind of helped you or led you to decide to do less markets?

Sophie Holt: I've got a son and I didn't want to sacrifice my weekends. I wanted to hang out with him because he's at school during the week. Doing only one or two markets a year is really tricky because I always like to have lots of stock and different things ready. I think it was too much work in the end. I'll just use the places I've got as my little market stores and that's way more than enough then I can handle making. Summer for me is so insanely busy making and pre-Christmas, it was just too much workload to do markets.

Hollie Arnett: Fair enough. You gotta balance the time, the capacity, and the returns that you get from it. And I love the way of thinking of the shops as like your market stalls now. That's cool.

So you have now been running your business for over 10 years, so that's incredible to still be working and running your business is awesome. I'm imagining through 10 years plus of business, there have been highs, lows, ups, downs, all of the things that come with being a creative business owner.

What would you say helps you the most when things are maybe a little bit difficult or aren't as incredible? What helps you keep going and keep running your business and keep being creative?

Sophie Holt:

You always go through phases like that and it's especially if you have no inspiration, it happens. I just have to ride it out like a wave. It's really hard to think that "oh, what if it never comes back ever again?" But it always does, and you just have to work for it though.

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I actively go for walks and be in nature, or just do some doodling, no pressure of what comes out of that. I have my cups that I have to make over and over, like a tiny factory. If I don't have inspiration for something new, I'll just do what I already know.

Hollie Arnett: Yeah, totally. So I was gonna ask you about where you find ideas and inspiration. So you said going for walks, getting out in nature, maybe getting into doing some of that more not tedious, but just normal stuff. But is there anything else, anywhere else, any other tips and tricks you have for getting ideas and inspiration?

Sophie Holt: Music and hanging out with friends is always a good one too. Just bouncing ideas off each other or just being with mates is fun. Go dancing - just fun stuff.

Hollie Arnett: I love that. All the things that we've talked about in terms of all the amazing things that you make, the products you hand make, the stuff you make through Tikitibu, they all feel so YOU, so Studio Soph. How do you keep things so YOU, regardless of what medium you're working on or what project it is?

Sophie Holt: I think it's just my style. My point of difference being having grown up in Europe, in the Netherlands is a massive part of that. I was brought up by my mum who is an artist. And my grandfather and grandmother as well who were all ceramic artists. So I was born with it and creative influences. My whole life basically, and I was always drawing as a kid. My mum was doing her clay and I was just drawing alongside her. So over the years I just developed my own crazy characters.

I always feel like I'm not very good with words so that's my diary and how I love to express myself by my crazy artworks, my illustrations.

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Hollie Arnett: You can definitely tell when you see any of your work. Those characters definitely come across as a specific kind of pointy angular shapes that are really you and like the way you write words and the colours I think are definitely Studio Soph. They all come together to make this super specific, unique style, which is awesome and very recognisable, which is what we want as artists, right?

My last question is one that I ask everybody. What do you think is the biggest lesson you have learnt about branding your passion throughout your 10 plus years of business?

Sophie Holt: To keep playing is a big one. I really have to take that advice myself a bit more because lately I've been doing lots of repetitive things and I missed it. Like just play with different materials and mediums and stuff. I found that's important, otherwise it becomes the same thing every day. Keep it close to yourself. When I'm doing my branding, I'm always using my own art on everything. And yeah, be proud of it. Share it!

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Hollie Arnett: I love that. I love the reminder to play as well. I think that it's really easy to lose yourself as your passion becomes your business. It's always like, I have so many other practical, important things I have to do and if you find something like your cups that you make that are successful, then you kinda get into this thing of, okay, I've gotta keep making cups, but actually you are not limited to just cups or to anything. You can keep playing. You can make a walking piece of art with someone you collaborate with. You can do whatever you want. And that's fun!

It's like fun for your audience to see too. I think as someone who loves artists, when I see them making something new, I'm like, oh, that's so cool. I wanna know more. I wanna see more. So yeah, it's definitely a great reminder to have fun!

Sophie Holt: Absolutely! It's really fun because my mum is coming here. She lives in the Netherlands, and is coming here to live and we're going to be working together. She does bigger sculptural work with clay, so I wanna do bigger things myself and really explore. Make exhibitions together and that's really exciting.

Hollie Arnett: How special to be able to get to do that with your mum? That's really cool. I can't wait to see it and I'm sure everybody listening will be excited to see some new pieces from you. That's exciting!

Is there anything you wanna tell the people or anywhere you wanna send them before we wrap up?

Sophie Holt: My website has been stocked with the new cups and there's a lot of new, other exciting products coming as well. If you're in the area, just come and see us at either Zappekin or Little Beehive.

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You can follow Sophie Holt at @studiosoph.