Sundry Works Help · Bluesky

Posting your paintings to Bluesky

The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.

What it's for

Posting straight to Bluesky from the Post tab. Of the four places Sundry Works can post to, this is by far the least trouble to set up: there is no app to register, nobody to wait for approval from, and no browser hop. A handle and an app password and it works.

It also stands entirely on its own. Unlike Threads it does not lean on the Instagram and Facebook connection, because Bluesky takes the picture as a file rather than fetching it from a web address.

Setting it up

1. In Bluesky, go to Settings, then Privacy and security, then App passwords.
2. Press Add App Password and name it something you will recognise, like "Sundry Works".
3. Leave the box about access to your direct messages switched OFF. Sundry Works only posts pictures and has no business reading your messages.
4. Bluesky shows you the password once and never again. It looks like abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop. Copy it now.
5. In Sundry Works, go to the Configuration tab and find "Post to Bluesky".
6. Type your handle - the whole thing, like wistfulworldart.bsky.social, with no @ on the front.
7. Paste the app password and press Connect to Bluesky.

Never put your real Bluesky password in here. Sundry Works will refuse anything that is not shaped like an app password, and say so. An app password only lets this computer post, and you can revoke it in Bluesky at any time without changing your own password or disturbing anything else.

Posting

Pick Bluesky in the Format row on the Post tab. The picture goes to 1080 × 1350 and the publish card appears with the Bluesky caption in it.

Bluesky stops at 300 characters, which is shorter than the others, and it refuses the post rather than trimming it. So the button greys out and says "Too long to post" until you shorten the caption. The box counts as you type so you can see where you are.

The picture goes as a JPEG rather than a PNG. Bluesky will not accept an image over a million bytes and a PNG at this size is several times that, so the app compresses it just enough to fit and no further.

Links actually work here

This is the reason Bluesky is worth bothering with for selling. It is the one place of the four where a link out is not quietly buried - Instagram in particular shows a post with an outside link to fewer people.

There is a catch that the app handles for you. Bluesky does not find links in a post by itself the way every other platform does. A web address typed into a Bluesky caption is dead text unless the post separately says which stretch of characters is a link. Sundry Works works that out and sends it, for links and for hashtags, so a line like "See more at https://sundry.works" goes out clickable.

Every Bluesky picture also goes out with alt text describing it, taken from the painting's title and medium. Describing your images is close to a house rule on Bluesky rather than a nicety.

If it goes wrong

• "That does not look like an app password" - you have pasted your real password. Go back and make an app password instead.
• "Invalid identifier or password" - usually the handle. Check it against your Bluesky profile exactly, with no @ on the front and no space on the end.
• "That Bluesky sign-in has expired" - press Disconnect and connect again with a fresh app password.
• A post refused for being too long - Bluesky counts a little differently from a word processor, and an emoji counts as one. Trust the count in the box.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Printing show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.