Built by a gallery director
Because the artist and the gallery should not be keeping two different lists of the same edition.
Richard van Gelder spent years in the fine art trade on Maui and in Las Vegas, from consultant to director. Two things never stopped bothering him. Before he could promise a collector a number, he had to ring the artist to check it was still available. And once a piece was at the foundry, he was the one relaying updates to the collector by hand, week after week.
Underneath both was the same thing: the artist and the gallery live on separate islands. The gallery keeps its records, the artist keeps a spreadsheet, the foundry keeps a whiteboard, and the collector rings whoever answers. Gallery software is built for one gallery's private database, and the artist can see none of it.
Craftlog is one record of the edition that all four of them read. The artist or the gallery registers it. The gallery sells from it, and a reservation holds because everyone sees it. The foundry posts each stage with a photograph, from a phone, with no account. The collector watches, and keeps the record for good. Every hand the work passes through is written down, and nothing is lost when people change.
Our mission
Nobody pays to be in the record. The gallery pays for the work. Artists, foundries and collectors are free, always, because the record is only worth anything if everyone is in it.
What we stand for
Your data, always
Export your entire catalog at any time. CSVs, certificates, provenance records. If you ever leave Craftlog, everything comes with you. No lock-in, no hostage data.
Built for permanence
Provenance records are append-only. Once an ownership change is recorded, it cannot be altered or deleted. This is by design. Art records should be permanent.
Gallery-first privacy
Your collectors are yours. Other galleries cannot see your collector data, and collectors cannot see each other. The artist and the maker of a piece can see who bought it, and nobody else can.