Art and Craft Materials Inventory

Who this is for

What the studio actually holds, written down before the next order. Material, type, colour or size, where it lives, how much is left and what it is worth at the prices you paid.

Artists and makers with a studio to restock, craft tutors preparing for a class, and anyone selling work who needs a materials figure for their accounts or their insurance.

What this helps you track

• What materials are held, by type, colour or size and where they are stored
• How much of each is left, in the unit you buy it in
• What the materials are worth at the prices you actually paid
• Which colours or sizes keep running out, once two counts can be compared
• A dated list to show an insurer after a flood or a break-in

How to use it

1. Write the studio or room, who is counting and the date. If the count is for a class or a commission, name it in the header.
2. List each material with its type and the detail that distinguishes it — the colour, the weight of the paper, the gauge of the wire, the size of the canvas.
3. Write where it is stored: a drawer, a plan chest, a shelf. This is the column that saves the most time later.
4. Count in the unit you buy in — tube, sheet, metre, kilogram — and stay consistent between counts so quantities can be compared.
5. Enter the cost per unit from a recent receipt; the line value, the totals and the summary are worked out in the browser and the workbook.
6. Mark the lines that are low and order from that list rather than from memory at the supplier's website.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Should part-used materials be counted?

Count them however you can describe consistently — half a tube is a half, a part-roll is a rough metre figure. Precision matters less than using the same method every time.

Does it work for yarn and fabric?

It can, though a large stash is better served by the yarn and fabric stash inventory, which is built around fibre, weight and dye lot. This sheet suits a mixed studio holding several kinds of material.

Why record the cost of materials?

Two reasons: it gives you a figure for insurance, and if you sell your work it feeds into what a piece costs to make. The sheet totals what you enter and leaves the pricing to you.

Can I keep one sheet per project?

Yes — name the project in the header and count only what it uses. Keeping a studio-wide sheet as well is worth the effort, as it is the one an insurer would ask for.