Please do follow the below guidelines and make sure to read over the terms of About.com's full user agreement. If you want to share work that is not part of a pottery project, feel free to post them in the Pottery Pics section of the Forum.
Note: Each project has specific submission dates. Please check each project for its particular dates and guidelines.
Your Piece
- Any pottery or ceramic piece submitted for a monthly pottery project gallery should be a new one made in response to the project, not be an existing piece that you have that happens to fit a project's subject. The detailed information and closing dates for each monthly project are given on the project's instruction page.
- By submitting a photograph of a pottery or ceramic piece, you are certifying that you are the creator or sole owner of the material you are submitting.
- All pieces submitted to the Pottery Guide will be deemed to be available for critique, although comments and critiques are not guaranteed.
Photo Information
In your email, please list
- your name
- the title and dimensions of the pottery piece (in inches or centimeters)
- type of clay and temperature range (e.g. mid-range stoneware) plus any further details of interest
- a statement about how you feel about your piece and what you were trying to achieve (minimum 40 words), and
- a sentence saying you have read and agree to About.com's user agreement.
Without this information, your photo may not be used.
If you have a website, online gallery, or online store, please feel free to include the URLs and I will add links to these as well.
The Photo File Attachment
In order for your photograph to be usable, it must be
- a .jpg file
- no more than 1200 pixels in either height or width
- have a resolution of no more than 100 pixels per inch (72 ppi is preferred)
- be no more than 5MG in size -- if your imaging program has a "save for web" option, use this.
If you need to help in working with your photograph, this tutorial on resizing photos from About.com's Guide to Personal Web Pages will help, and includes a link to a free program you can use.
Email Submission
- In the subject line of your email, put "Photo Submission" and then the name of the correct pottery project.
- If you forgot to attach your photo before you hit the "send" button, resend all the information again. To avoid confusion, do not email the photo by itself. The easiest way to avoid forgetting an attachment is to do it before you write the body of an email.
- Email submissions to pottery@aboutguide.com.
After Submission
Project submissions are added to the gallery in the order in which they are received. They may not be added immediately; I may be working in my clay studio, so please be patient.
I will send you an email to let you know when your piece has been added to the project gallery. I will also let you know if your piece isn't suitable for some reason.
Thank you for following these guidelines, it makes creating the galleries much easier!