In development · Accepting beta testers
Your dashboard
for success.
Metal Relic Studio is an app in development to help sculptors, artists, and makers document their work, preserve its history, and understand the business behind each piece.
Every finished piece holds decisions, effort, and meaning that a photograph alone cannot explain. We’re building a place to capture those details as you work, then carry that record forward through exhibitions, commissions, and sales.
Sign up for beta testing
Created by metal sculptor Jeremy Werkheiser, drawing on the work of building, documenting, exhibiting, and selling his own sculptures.
The work deserves a record.
Making a sculpture takes more than the finished object can show. The first sketch, the reason behind a change, the techniques you developed, and the hours spent solving a problem are all part of the work. When those details stay scattered across photos, receipts, and memory, they become harder to recover and share.
Metal describes a medium. The ideas, choices, and expression behind a piece are part of its artistic purpose. Documentation helps you explain those choices in your own words and preserve evidence of the work you created.
Start with the making. Keep the history.
Build records document how a piece came into being. Provenance traces its origin and ownership history, supported by records such as invoices, contracts, and documented transfers. Exhibition and publication records add to its wider history. That record begins with you and can continue long after the piece leaves your studio.
Metal Relic Studio is being built to help you organize that evidence and keep adding to it. The strength of the record comes from the information and supporting documents you preserve.
What we’re building
Start a record while you’re creating, add to it as the piece’s history grows, and use it to make informed studio decisions. Planned features include:
Capture the creative process
Keep sketches, progress photos, techniques, and build notes with the project. Record the inspiration behind the piece and what you want it to express.
Track time and build costs
Log labor hours, materials, and other project expenses. See what you spent and the value of your time at your chosen hourly rate.
Keep commission contracts together
Upload contracts and agreements for each commissioned piece so the paperwork stays connected to the work.
Record sales and compare costs
Track whether a piece has sold and record its actual sale price. Compare that price with recorded build expenses and labor value to see what remains after each.
Build a record of the piece’s history
Keep finished specifications, exhibition dates, awards, and publication records together. Record sales and ownership transfers you know about, with supporting documents, to help establish provenance over time.
Create useful project documents
Use the information you collect to prepare artist statements, build notebooks, collector packets, and records for your own business.
Planned outputs
The goal is to turn the records you build into clear documents for the people who need them, with your own business records serving a different purpose from the story you share with a collector.
Artist statement
Develop a statement about the piece from your inspiration, intent, and process notes, ready for you to review and make your own.
Project cost and sales report
Bring recorded expenses, labor hours, and sale information into one breakdown. Show money spent separately from labor valued at your chosen rate, then compare both with the actual sale price. For unsold work, keep the cost record ready to inform your pricing.
Build notebook
Bring sketches, progress photos, techniques, and notes together to document how the piece was made.
Collector packet
Give the owner a record of the finished artwork: its story, specifications, care instructions, artist information, and documented history.
Appraisal supporting packet
Bring creation records, documented ownership history, exhibitions, awards, and recognition together for an appraiser to review.
Accepting Beta Testers
Help us build something that works in a real studio. We’re looking for artists and makers to test Metal Relic Studio with their own projects and tell us what makes documentation easier, what gets in the way, and what’s missing.
Sign up below for beta access information and next steps.
The app is in development. Signing up registers your interest; access details will follow by email.