opuscript.com/provenance
“Handmade” now costs nothing to say. That is your problem.
Your buyer is standing in front of work that took you forty hours, and they have no way to tell it from work that took forty seconds. They will not say so. They will just hesitate, or offer less, or buy the cheaper one. A provenance record hands them something to read instead of something to take on faith.
Every record is built against a standard published in full and free for anyone to inspect — including your buyer.
What a record actually contains
Not a certificate with a gold seal. An account of the work, in the detail only the person at the bench could give — which is exactly why it is believable.
“Harmatan goatskin, 1.0 mm, chestnut. Supplier: Talas, New York. Tanned in Northampton, England. Second hide — the first had a growth flaw sitting exactly where the spine would fall.”
Named supplier, named origin, substitution explained“Raised cords rather than recessed. Refused: recessed cords with a flat, smooth spine. The book was commissioned to be read at the table, not shelved as an ornament. Raised cords let the spine flex between the bands instead of creasing at one fixed point.”
The rejected option is what makes this hard to fabricate“The first spine lining cockled overnight — the paste was too wet for the humidity in the shop that week. It was stripped back the following morning and relaid with a thinner mix, adding roughly two hours.”
Nobody inventing a record writes this“I made this artefact. The shaping decisions recorded here were mine, the physical work was performed by my hands… Where tools, machines, or software assisted the work, I have named them.”
Signed, dated, and the same wording in every record everywhereDoes it pay for itself?
A documented record costs $340. The honest question is whether it moves the price of the work by more than that. Below is the arithmetic at a conservative ten percent — decide for yourself whether ten percent is plausible for your buyers.
Enter your numbers above.
Three places the record earns beyond the sale itself: insurance and valuation, where documented provenance is the difference between a claim and an argument; resale, where the second buyer never met you and has only the paperwork; and inheritance, where the object outlives everyone who knew what it was.
The four evidence classes
Every record covers the same four questions in the same order — whose hands, what material, what happened at the bench, over what time — so a buyer comparing two records is comparing like with like.
| Class | What it records |
|---|---|
| The Hand | Whose hands did the work, under what practice, in what workshop, and the signed maker's declaration. |
| The Material | Every material named specifically, with supplier, origin and any substitutions. Not “leather” but “Harmatan goatskin, 1.0mm, chestnut, from Talas, tanned in Northampton”. |
| The Bench | Process stages with tools and hours; decisions taken with the alternatives refused and the reasons; faults, repairs and deviations. |
| The Clock | Start and completion dates, hours by stage, working sessions, and whether the record was written at the bench. |
How it works
An interview, or your notes
Forty minutes on a call, or your own bench notes and photographs if you kept them. For work already finished, memory is fine — it is simply marked non-contemporaneous.
The record is written
Structured against the four classes. The decisions section is where the work is: what you chose, what you turned down, and why.
You check and sign
You read it, correct anything wrong, and sign the declaration. Nothing is published in your name that you have not approved.
It goes with the piece
PDF, or hand-bound to match. Your buyer receives an object and an account of it.
Ninety seconds through a finished record — the four classes, the decisions section, and why the faults matter most.
Who this is for
A good fit
- Commissioned or one-off work above roughly $800, where a buyer deliberates before committing
- Makers whose differentiator is process — the hours, the materials, the judgement
- Work likely to be insured, valued, resold or inherited
- Galleries and dealers who need to substantiate what they list
- Anyone tired of competing against listings that say “handmade” and are not
A poor fit
- Production runs and repeatable stock items — the economics do not work per unit
- Work under about $300, where the record is a large fraction of the price
- Anyone wanting certification or authentication. This is neither, and says so
- Makers unwilling to record what went wrong. That section is required, not optional
- Anyone hoping to omit a generative tool they used. That voids the record
What a provenance record costs
Priced by depth of evidence, matching the three conformance tiers. Tier reflects documentation only and says nothing about the quality of the work — a masterpiece with a thin record is Recorded, a modest piece with a full one is Attested.
- Materials with named suppliers
- Completion date and total hours
- Signed maker's declaration
- PDF delivered with the piece
- Everything in Recorded
- Full process record with hours by stage
- Decisions taken, with options refused and why
- Faults, repairs and deviations
- Session count and elapsed span
- Everything in Documented
- Photographic plates at three or more stages
- Recipient or witness attestation
- Hand-bound copy matched to the piece
Why Documented is the default. Recorded proves the object exists and what it is made of. Documented is the first tier that contains the decisions and the faults — the parts a buyer actually reads, and the parts that are hard to fabricate. A retrospective record for work already delivered is $240 and is marked non-contemporaneous, as the standard requires. Prices in Canadian dollars.
Read the finished record before you pay a cent.
Every record is written, sent to you in full, and only invoiced once you have read it and signed the declaration. If it does not read like an honest account of your own work, it is not published and there is no charge.
What is deliberately not guaranteed: that a buyer will pay more. Nobody can promise that, and the record is evidence rather than a sales device. What is guaranteed is that you will not pay for a document you do not stand behind.
Questions makers ask before buying
How much does a provenance record cost?
Will a provenance record actually let me charge more?
Does a provenance record prove something is handmade?
Can I use machines and still conform?
What if my work is not perfect? Do I have to record mistakes?
Who is a provenance record for?
Is the standard free to use?
Read the standard your buyer can also read
The Craft Provenance Standard is published in full and free to adopt, cite or require. That matters commercially: your buyer can check exactly what a Documented record claims and what it does not, without taking your word or ours.
It does not authenticate. It documents an assertion made by a named person who signed it, and its force is that person's reputation and their willingness to be held to a written account. It does not detect machine involvement — nothing does, reliably, which is why documentation replaces detection here.
It does not judge quality, and it is not audited. A maker who lies produces a conforming-looking record and a void claim, and nothing automatic catches it. These limits are not fine print — they are the reason to trust a record that states them over a certificate that does not.
Document the next piece
Most makers start with one record for a piece already finished, to see what it reads like before committing to it as a practice. That is a sensible way in, and it is $240.