Gallery Submission Guidelines

We regularly add new original pieces to our Gallery that are submitted by our readers. Each piece is linked to your Beadage profile and your website.

Each submission is evaluated for its creativity and technique, as well as the quality of the photo and the clarity of the description.

We get many more submissions than we publish. We will always notify you if your piece is published. Occasionally we will ask people to resubmit a photo or description if we really like the piece but not the presentation. Please review the guidelines below for the best chances of your work being accepted for publication.

What gets published?

We accept all sorts of beaded projects. Your work should be original, unique, and handcrafted by you. We do not accept work that is imported or otherwise created by someone other than the author of the submission.

Photography Guidelines

Please submit a clear, high-quality photograph with your submission.

Take your photo with the object of helping users see how it was made, rather than selling the piece. A photo that may be beautiful and perfect for selling your work may not be the best fit for our site.

Please follow these guidelines:

No watermarks. We cannot accept photos with writing or logos on them.

Show the entire piece. Avoid overly artistic shots that obscure how the piece is constructed. We sometimes publish pieces that don’t have the clasp or back of the neck showing, but we prefer the entire piece to be in the photo, even the clasp.

Avoid busy backgrounds. Try to take a picture of your jewelry against a plain background that has good contrast with your piece.

Compose your photo so the jewelry fills the frame. Do not leave extra blank space around the jewelry. We may crop your photo (but we prefer to not have to).

Use good lighting. Use a photo tent or other diffuse lighting to avoid deep shadows.

No vignettes, borders, artificial sparkles, or Instagram-type filters. Please do not add special effects to your photos. It is fine to adjust photos to make them brighter or clearer.

One photo per image.  Please do not make a collage of photos.

Adjust exposure in an editing program. Use software to make your photos look their best. You can use PicMonkey to do this online for free.

Writing guidelines

Write a detailed description of how your piece was made, including what materials you used, especially any unusual materials. Be clear, direct, and objective about describing your piece.

Include details of your technique and process. Details are interesting and educational. If there is a story behind the piece feel free to share taht, as well as how you constructed it.

Avoid praising your piece or what it is made of. Do not use subjective descriptives such as “beautiful”, “stunning”, “brilliant”, etc. It is also redundant to describe the piece as “handcrafted” or “artisan”. All pieces on our site are handcrafted. An exception would be if you use materials that are often not handmade, and you made them yourself, like handmade beads.

Use proper capitalization. Please capitalize proper names such as “Swarovski” and “Austrian”. Please do not capitalize gemstone names (like topaz, jasper, onyx) or names of beads (like seed beads, sterling silver beads). In combination, capitalize the proper name part only (for instance: Bali beads, Swarovski crystals).

Proofread for grammar and spelling errors. If English is not your native language, please have someone who is a native speaker edit your writing before you submit it.

We may edit your writing for clarity and tone.

Summary

The Beadage gallery is educational, not a marketplace. Please take your photo and write your copy with this in mind.

Beadage is also not a social media site. It is a curated site with specific guidelines for what we publish. If you just want to share your work with no editorial oversight, we suggest Facebook or Pinterest.

Please do not be intimidated by these guidelines! We have published pieces from hundreds of artists just like you, and we are eager to see and feature the work you’ve created. If you have any questions about any of these guidelines, please contact us and we’ll do our best to help you.