An excerpt from Alyson's book

Categories for Your Inventory 

Consider these categories for your inventory records, adapting to your specific needs.

Name of artist. Presumably you are the creator of all the works in your database, but add the names of any collaborators.

Title. Titling your works. (1) differentiates them from one another; (2) makes it easier for others, such as critics, to identify them and to write about them; (3) helps people relate better to your subject matter or intent by giving them clues; and (4) allows search engines to find your subjects when they’re online.

Location. Exactly where each item in your inventory can be found at any given moment.

Image availability. What images, views, and details do you have of this artwork?

Date. Keep track of the date you complete your work and make note of it on the artwork.

Foundry. Record the location of the casting and with whom you worked.

Print shop. If you work with a master printer, log that information.

Support. Is it on canvas? Board? Paper?

Primer. What did you use to prepare your surface?

Medium. Be specific. Someday a curator or conservator will come to you and ask you how to conserve one of your artworks. You should be able to exactly describe the medium you used so that the work is cared for properly.

Technique. For some mediums, this category will be more important than for others. A fiber artist, for instance, might note “hand-appliquéd, machine-quilted.”

Varnish / Patina. Again, be precise.

Size. Art is always listed as height by width by depth in inches or centimeters (never width by height by depth). Keep a record of size both with and without the frame.

Sales price. Your sales price is always listed as the retail price.

Frame. Description and size. Note framer if other than you.

Materials cost. This category should be included since you need to keep track of it for tax and pricing purposes.

Provenance. The provenance of an artwork is its history. It includes when and where it was exhibited and who has owned it (in some cases, there may be a sequence of owners). Provenance is invaluable when determining ownership of disputed works of art.

Image availability. Do you have 35 mm slides of this artwork? Prints? Four-by-five negatives? Digital?

Related notes or stories about the work. Notes or accounts of the work will be impressive and be equally informative when you print it out next to the image in the same database.

‘I’d Rather Be in the Studio!  The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion’ by Alyson B. Stanfield can be purchase at her website http://artbizcoach.com. Also check-out her blog, facebook page and get her weekly newsletter. http://artbizblog.com and http://facebook.com/artbizcoach