Making jewelry is not nearly as hard as taking good pictures of them. Agreed? Indeed jewelry photography is often the first major obstacle for many a budding artisan. It was also a big issue for me when I first started this blog (check out my past post 13 things I learnt about jewelry photography)


Want more stress? Then take a look at Craftgawker and see if you are up to the challenge of having your craft AND the photography be accessed for acceptance onto the site. Think of the publicity if people like your photo.

The standards are very high. I know because I got six submissions rejected! I clearly need to improve my photography skills. This quotation says it all :

"Failure is just another way to learn how to do something right."
Marian Wright Edelman

Joyce of HappyCloudMoments first tipped me off about this site because she blogged about how her earring picture was rejected but the cell phone charm one was. She also recently got another accepted. Joyce takes excellent photographs and shows us how she does it in her blog post - Forget about a lightbox. Her technique is pretty much the same as the one used by the Finnish designer I once wrote about - you can see Helmetti's studio cum photography set up (the simplest and best I have ever seen) in my past post called Focus on Ocean Jasper. Joyce is constantly raising the bar on her photographic skills - I was impressed with her male jewelry model photoshoot.


Even if you don't want to submit anything to Craftgawker I still recommend visiting as it is an excellent way to learn how to stage and photograph jewelry as well as be inspired. This is the standard to aim for because all the pictures are stunning. You can see them in chronological order, or in randomized sets or check out the most popular. Or if you're only interested in jewelry, then click on the category list at the bottom of their site. Don't have time? Then follow me on Twitter or on Facebook and I'll bring your attention to some inspirational designs from time to time.

You will notice that jewelry is by a long margin, the largest category on Craftgawker. I suspect you will have a better chance at getting accepted if you didn't make jewelry! Also the moderation rate takes a few days not 12-24 hours as stated in their FAQ. This site is so popular they even closed submissions for a while some time ago because the moderators were having trouble keeping up.


One last word, if you're on a diet, for goodness sakes don't click on Foodgawker, the original site which spawned Craftgawker. The pictures there are feasts for the eyeballs.

UPDATE : The site has switched to Craft Tutorials only.
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips