Sundry Works Help · Pinterest

Pinning your paintings to Pinterest

Pins with a link back to your page, sent by the Sundry Works service.

What it's for

Pinterest is a search engine for pictures more than it is a conversation. Somebody looking for a moody seascape finds yours, and a pin carries a link, so one tap takes them to the painting's own page or your shop. For a painter that link is the whole point.

It is also the one connection with nothing to set up on your side. There is no app to register and no password to paste: the app is Sundry Works' own, and you only say yes to it on Pinterest.

The sign-in is kept on the Sundry Works service rather than on your computer, because it needs a secret that belongs to Sundry Works and cannot travel inside the program. So Pinterest needs your service token - the one under Posting on a timer on the computer, or on the Sundry Works service card in a browser - and every pin is sent by the service, even one you post now.

Setting it up

1. Go to the Configuration tab and find "Post to Pinterest".
2. Press Connect to Pinterest. On the computer your browser opens; on the phone the page goes to Pinterest.
3. Sign in to Pinterest if it asks, and press the button that gives Sundry Works access.
4. Come back to Sundry Works. On the computer, press Check again on the card.
5. Under "Board your pins go to", choose a board. Every pin goes there until you choose another.

Only your public boards are listed. A pin on a secret board is seen by nobody, which is the opposite of what a pin is for.

Pinning a painting

On the Post tab, pick Pinterest Pin in the Format row. The picture goes to 1000 × 1500, the shape Pinterest shows whole, and a card called Pin to Pinterest appears below the picture.

It starts with four things filled in, and all four can be changed for this pin. The title is the painting's title. The link is the painting's page on your website, if the website card has published it there, and otherwise the website on the Business tab. The description is the Pinterest caption the Story tab wrote. The alt text is the title and the medium, the same line every other post uses.

Post now sends it within about a minute. Post later sends it at a time you choose, whether the computer is on or not. Either way it appears in the list of what is waiting, and you can call it back from there until it goes.

Pinterest stops a title at 100 characters and a description at 800. The card counts both as you type and will not send a pin that is over.

Every pin is one you made and pressed. Pinterest's rules ask for exactly that, and because every artist shares the one Sundry Works app, it is a rule kept for everybody - nothing in Sundry Works will ever pin paintings by itself.

While Sundry Works waits for Pinterest

A new Pinterest app starts on trial access, and Pinterest has to look at it before its pins can be public. Until that happens, every pin goes to a private test area that only Sundry Works can see. It will say it was posted, and nobody on Pinterest will see it.

You will always know. While that is true, the Pinterest card on the Configuration tab and the pin card on the Post tab both say so in a coloured line, and a pin in the list of what is waiting is marked as the test area. A test pin is not written into the painting's history as a post, because it reached nobody.

The day Pinterest says yes, those lines go away by themselves. You will be asked to choose your board once more, because the test area's boards are not your real ones.

If it goes wrong

• "Pinterest posting is not switched on on this server yet" - this one is Sundry Works', not yours. Write to [email protected].
• "This browser is not connected to the Sundry Works service yet", or "The scheduler is not set up yet" - the service token is missing. Add it on the Configuration tab first.
• "That Pinterest connection has expired" - press Reconnect on the Pinterest card. The board you chose is kept.
• "Pinterest would not list your boards" - press Check again. If it keeps happening, Reconnect.
• No board in the list - make one on Pinterest first, then press Check again.

The service renews the sign-in by itself before it runs out, whether or not you are pinning anything. Disconnecting deletes it from the service completely; nothing there can pin for you afterwards.

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.
• Story cards, show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's story cards or 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.
• Pinning your paintings to Pinterest - Pins with a link back to your page, sent by the Sundry Works service.
• What social media may do with your paintings - What each place you post to may do with your pictures, and what you can do about it.
• 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.