How to Convert Your Physical Art Into NFT Art

NFTs have allowed digital artists to enhance their works of art by new technological means. Very quickly, the need to link physical work to its digital counterpart became apparent.

For example, collectors want to display their purchases in their living room. It can also be artists who wish to offer numbered serigraphs for the sale of their NFTs. The question that arises is, therefore: is it possible to transform your physical works of art into an NFT and if yes, how?

Embroidery Using NFTs: Vangart

The French startup Vangart specializes in embroidery using modern machines to perfect this art. In 2021, Vangart started creating NFTs that are associated with their physical works.

Each work has a corresponding NFT which acts as a digital certificate of authenticity. At the time of purchase, the buyer has the choice between two options:

• With the physical work: you will need to fill a form on the website with the serial number behind the work and a wallet address. The NFT will be sent within 48 hours.
• With the NFT: To claim the physical artwork, each NFT contains an unique code as an unlockable content on OpenSea. By filling another form on the website, you will be able to claim the physical artwork.

Here, Vangart serves as a trusted third party for several things. The first is to keep the physical works in a safe place until the buyer decides to claim their property. The second is that it also guarantees the availability of the physical work.

It is therefore necessary to contact the company before purchasing the NFT to ensure that the physical work is available or not.

Sculpture and NFTs:  Xavier Magaldi

Swiss artist Xavier Magaldi is a metal sculptor, he is also a fan of Augmented Reality. It is by using 3D modeling and dedicated software that he digitizes his works to make them accessible in a virtual space.

There are only a few NFTs that will allow you to obtain the physical work but all will have their version in augmented reality. There are therefore two separate versions of the work: one is digital thanks to the NFT, the other is physical. 

The use of the NFT is double:

• Digital certificate of authenticity for the physical artwork.
• Proof of ownership for the digital artwork.

This strategy allows greater freedom for the artist who can choose the works that will remain physical and others that will have their digital double. Some may have their 3D version in a metaverse exhibition museum while others will require moving to a physical exhibition to actually see it.

Digital Certificate NFT Tools

NFTs make it possible to certify at a given moment that a wallet has minted an NFT linked to one or more media. This can be a PDF of the certificate of authenticity, image files, 3D or augmented reality files…

The NFT therefore only serves as a medium and the way to use it in the work’s digitization strategy must be considered before minting. Here are some important questions to ask yourself before seeing what tools exist:

• Do I have a third party who manages the certificates of authenticity of my works? Do I trust them?
• How to ensure the long-term transmission of the NFT in parallel with the physical work?
• How to easily know where the NFT is hosted?
• How to prevent the degradation of physical work?

With the answers to these questions, you should be able to determine which tools you will need for the rest of your project. Feel free to ask us about our consulting services for additional support.

There are already several projects that specialize in the certification of works using NFTs and blockchain digital signatures.

• Woleet: startup to sign official documents in companies. Offering features such as Timestamping, E-signature, etc. on Bitcoin.
• Verisart: dedicated to creators who wish to sign their works on the Blockchain. 

Whatever solution is chosen, the most important thing is to think about preserving the link between the physical work and the NFT certificate of authenticity. If the certificate of authenticity is not issued during a physical sale, this breaks the chain of traceability. And if there is only the NFT to certify the authenticity of the physical work, it will be very complicated to determine the authenticity of a work in the event of resale on the secondary market.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.