Foundry Archives - Foundry Michelangelo

Treasure Investments Corporation Dba Foundry Michelangelo To Create Life Size Megalodon

TIC — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:30:27 +0000

Treasure Investments Corporation (TIC) dba Foundry Michelangelo (FM) is currently creating 2 sets of life-size jaws and teeth of the largest predator ever to live on earth. Mark Russo, Founder and Chairman of TIC, was visiting the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon this last summer and was in awe when he saw the life-size Megalodon Jaws when exiting the shark tank exhibit.

Russo recalls the moment, “When I walked up to them, I just couldn’t believe how big the jaws were. Having watched the movie Jaws, you think wow that is a big shark and large teeth and jaws, but the crazy thing about it is the shark in the movie was only about 25 feet and weighed around 6,000 pounds if real. A Megalodon is the same shark; only it’s an amazing 70 feet long and weighing over 100,000 pounds. Megalodons went extinct about 4 million years ago and were so large they could bite a whale in half.” The set of jaws in the aquarium are about 7 feet in height and represent a 60-foot Megalodon. TIC will be creating 2 sets of jaws and teeth and an actual 70-foot life-size full-scale version.

The first set of Jaws will be approximately 7 feet in height representing a 60-foot Megalodon, the second set will be approximately 10 feet in height and represent a 70-foot version. The life-size and full-scale Megalodon will be 70 feet in length and have the circumference of a school bus.

File Photo Smithsonian Magazine | Photo

Knowing who to call to help with this project, Mark called his friend Rob Arps of Form 3d in Portland, Oregon. Form 3d Foundry is a full scale advanced and rapid prototyping company. They have the ability to scan nearly any image and enlarge or reduce the size and create full working 3d models in almost any material. With the permission of the aquarium, Form 3d was given access to scan the 7-foot Megalodon jaws over a weekend and not during regular working hours. With the scan data complete, TIC can now begin creating the jaw sets.

The jaws and teeth will be created with an advanced printing machine using a polyresin. Once printed, a stand will be made to display the jaws complete with the teeth. Once the first prototype is perfected, a master mold will be created, and TIC will go to production casting the first sets in resin and will be hand-painted for museum display, and some will also be cast in bronze. The larger 10-foot set will be designed so you can walk through them. The production of the actual life-size 70-foot megalodon will begin once the first 2 jaw sets are complete.

Doing a lot of field research, Mark Russo has visited numerous aquariums, museums, zoos, fossil showrooms, and many other unique locations to find out that there is nowhere one can purchase a set of Megalodon Jaws. Russo commented on his research saying, “You can buy the teeth but not a set of Jaws, let alone a life-size version of one. I have asked numerous fossil store owners and museum directors around the country that if you had a set of Megalodon jaws to sell, could you sell them? Unanimously everyone said yes and lots of them. I realized that we had a major opportunity to create something very unique and become the only distributor worldwide.”

Sharks do not have bones; they are made up of mostly cartilage, which is why there are no fossil records other than their teeth. To recreate the life-size versions of the jaws, great white shark jaws were scaled up to match the size of the Megalodons teeth which are exactly the same as great white just much larger.

TIC will begin distribution of the jaw sets to aquariums, zoos, and other dealers in the fall of 2020. If you want a life-size set of jaws or full life-size reproduction of the largest predator to ever live on earth, there is only one company you can call Treasure Investments Corporation dba Foundry Michelangelo.

About Treasure Investments Corporation dba Foundry Michelangelo

Treasure Investments Corporation dba Foundry Michelangelo has a diverse business platform, creating and providing fine art in original sculptures from small desktop images and collectibles to larger than life heroic monuments. The company’s master mold collection contains over 2,000 original molds from over 230 world-famous artists. For more information, visit foundrymichelangelo.com.

Media Contact:Mark RussoPhone: 360.954-5453Email: mark@foundrymichelangelo.com

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Treasure Investments Corp Turns Silver Into Gold

TIC — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 10:30:56 +0000

Lorenzo’s Gold Bull by Lorenzo Ghiglieri

Treasure Investments Corporation dba Foundry Michelangelo is creating and casting pure silver sculptures from the most famous artists in history. Foundry Michelangelo (FM) owns the molds to over 2,000 original sculptures representing over 230 artists that include Fredric Remington, Charles Russell, Bernini, Canova, Michelangelo, Rodin, Ghiglieri, and many others.

The images from the molds are diverse and cover a broad spectrum of subject matter, including biblical, cultural, mythological, western, wildlife, and range in sizes from just a few inches in size to over 50 feet in height. FM primarily casts work in bronze, but the demand for the silver work has been dramatically increasing.

Presidential American Patriot Gold Edition by Lorenzo Ghiglieri

In 2018, FM cast a masterpiece of an eagle By Lorenzo Ghiglieri entitled American Patriot in 1,000 troy ounces of pure .999 fine silver, made the piece a limited edition of only 10 and priced it at $200,000. 9 of the 10 have sold with a deal pending for the last one. “Our Silver pieces are stunning and are the talk of all the trade shows we attend.

We have many 1,000 troy ounce pure silver pieces that we sell, including our lion Sovereign Reign, bull and bear New Powerful Exchange, our elephant Noble Ruler and most recently, an incredible casting of the bust of the Pietà in pure silver by Michelangelo. “Looking at this piece in silver leaves you speechless,” says Mark Russo, founder of FM.

An attendee at the New Orleans Investment Conference approached the FM display booth and noticed the pure silver Michelangelo and asked what the price was. The pure silver Pietà bust is cast in .999 pure silver, contains 1,000 troy ounces, and priced at $195,000.00. Once informed of this, the attendee asked if he could send his silver to Foundry Michelangelo and have one cast. Russo replied, “we have our own silver but would certainly consider using the silver you can provide.”

Russo asked the attendee what he had paid for the silver, and his 1,000 troy ounces cost him around $17,000.00. Russo responded with, “send me your silver and let Foundry Michelangelo transpose it into a masterpiece by one of the most famous artists in history using our master mold and turn your silver into gold.” The client loved the concept and purchased the piece. Most silver owners that hold their silver themselves store it in a safe or hide it somewhere in their homes.

Mark’s idea is to offer customers and buyers of silver bullion to use the silver and cast it into a beautiful work of art and not only enjoy and see the piece but get the incredible monetary gain from the value of the art. The client, although he is paying a premium for the right to have the work cast using one of the limited editions for the Michelangelo, his base value of the silver went up 1100% since his 1,000 troy ounces is now a limited-edition Michelangelo.

FM is now allowing bullion buyers of both silver and pure gold to not just invest in the base metal, but to exponentially increase their investments by having us pour their precious metals into amazing sculptures designed by the most famous artists on earth.

About Treasure Investments Corporation dba Foundry Michelangelo:

Treasure Investments Corporation dba Foundry Michelangelo, “The Source for the world’s greatest fine art masterpieces,” creates original sculptures from small desktop collectibles to larger-than-life heroic monuments that are cast in bronze, pure silver, gold, and resin. The company’s master mold collection contains over 2,000 original molds from world-famous artists, including Frederic Remington, C.M. Russell, Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, Ghiglieri and Michelangelo. For more information, visit foundrymichelangelo.com.

Media Contact:
Mark Russo
Phone: 360.954-5453
Email: mark@foundrymichelangelo.com

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Future Battle Ground foundry, gallery, academy to take metal casting to ‘next level’

TIC — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 17:36:22 +0000

BATTLE GROUND, Wash., April 10, 2019

By Anthony Macuk, Columbian business reporter Published: April 7, 2019, 6:02 AM

In the not too distant future, Battle Ground could become home to one of the largest artistic metal foundries in the country, serving as a training

ground for a new generation of artists that create sculpted works in bronze, silver and other precious metals.

That’s the vision outlined by the leaders of Treasure Investments Corp., a fine-art production company that set up shop two years ago in a business park at the east end of Battle Ground.

At the moment, the Treasure Investments headquarters is just a sculpture gallery and some offices. The artwork is all created at off-site metal foundries — most commonly Foundry Michelangelo, a facility the company operates on a ranch near Boring, Ore.

But the company’s near-future plan is to bring Foundry Michelangelo to Battle Ground, relocating both it and the gallery to a new 20-acre campus that will also serve as a school for future artists.

“It’s a $20 (million) to $25 million investment in Battle Ground just for our foundry,” says Treasure Investments founder and chairman Mark Russo. “We’re prepared to do that.”

Russo’s partner on the Foundry Michelangelo endeavor is Treasure Investments CEO Casey Powell, best known as the founder of Sequent Computer Systems. Powell founded the formerly Beaverton, Ore.-based computer processor company in 1983 and served as its CEO until 1999, when it was acquired by IBM for $1 billion. Now he says he wants to put his business expertise to use to build Foundry Michelangelo.

“I’ve done it once already,” Powell says. “(Building a major company) was hard the first time. The second time is easier.”

Bronze, silver casting

Foundry Michelangelo specializes in cast bronze and silver artwork created using a process called “lost wax” — one of the oldest forms of metal casting, with archeological examples dating to 6,000 years ago.

An artist creates the original sculpture out of wax, which is dipped in a ceramic slurry then blasted with sand. The process is repeated several times to build up a hardened shell around the artwork.

The ceramic is heated until the wax inside melts and flows out, leaving a hollow cavity with the “negative image” of the sculpture, which is filled with molten metal. Cool it down, break off the ceramic shell and you’re left with a bronze replica of the wax original — right down to the finest surface texture details.

“With lost wax I can actually capture your fingerprint,” says Roy Swan, president and operator of the current iteration of Foundry Michelangelo in Boring, Ore.

That’s the simplified explanation, but there are a few other steps. For starters, most foundries aren’t going to want to cast just one metal version of a sculpture, so the modern process starts by creating silicone rubber negative images that can be used to cast multiple wax versions that can in turn be put through the lost wax process.

The rubber “master molds” can also be saved for use in future production runs, and one aspect of the Treasure Investments business involves building up a large collection of molds from famous artists.

The other complicating factor is that the majority of the sculptures are too big and too complex to be cast as a single piece, so the artwork has to be cast in a varying number of individual molds, which often require the use of added holes and tubing to make sure the bronze flows correctly.

Swan describes the casting as a collaborative artistic process between the original sculptor and the foundry team members who decide how to break up the piece. A sculpture of a team of horses pulling a stagecoach, for example, will take hundreds of pieces, and the foundry team will often work with the artist during sculpting to make sure the piece can be effectively cast.

“You don’t want to lose the action in the world (of the sculpture),” Swan says. “So you’ve got to do the hard stuff like the reins and chains.”

The foundry team’s artistic skills also come into play at the end of the process, when the bronze pieces are welded back together and the complete sculpture is touched up and colored.

Rather than painting the surface, most of the statues are colored using patina, which is the natural discoloration that appears on bronze as a result of oxidation. By applying specific chemicals to different parts of the exterior, the foundry artists can create a whole range of patina colors.

“You can do full colors now with patina,” Swan says. “A lot of people think it’s paint, but it’s all patina.”

A small sculpture could be cast in as little as three days, Swan says, though as a business operation in practice it takes much longer — weeks, months or even the better part of a year, depending on the size of the piece.

“If you bought a monument from me today, I’d get it to you in about three months,” Russo says. “The bigger they are, the longer

they take.”

Foundry Michelangelo

Unsurprisingly, cast metal sculptures are expensive. The average cost of a piece from Treasure Investments tends to be about $30,000, Russo says, but that price tag can quickly grow into the millions depending on the size and complexity of the artwork and the metal used in casting.

The foundry can create sculptures from gold and other precious metals, Russo says, but bronze is the most commonly used material because it’s the most durable. Sometimes the more expensive artwork is commissioned as a more practical way for customers to hang onto their precious metals, he adds.

“A lot of people who buy bullion as an investment will buy it as a piece of art,” he says.

Russo built his career in curating and selling fine art and sculpted works, and Treasure Investments does plenty of commissioned pieces for individuals and businesses, but Russo says one of the company’s biggest business drivers is art commissioned for charity auctions.

Russo formed Treasure Investments in 2016, initially using a collection of mold assets that he already owned. The next step was to buy the Boring foundry in 2018, which was renamed Foundry Michelangelo. The current Battle Ground gallery opened about two years ago.

The company began producing and selling artwork based on the initial mold assets, as well as new pieces commissioned from artists. The company’s most frequent collaborators are Oregon artist Lorenzo Ghiglieri and his son Laran Ghiglieri.

Russo has also worked to expand the Treasure Investments catalog with a series of acquisitions of new master molds from famous artists, and the rights to replicate them.

Part of the vision involves consolidation; buying out multiple local foundries and building up an extensive collection of molds. Following a confidential purchase of a new collection in February, Russo says the company can now cast nearly 2,000 different pieces from more than 230 artists.

Russo says Treasure Investments has grown quickly as the expanding catalog of artists and molds gives the company more clout in the fine art industry, enabling it to build up a network of partner fine-art display galleries throughout the country.

The Battle Ground gallery employs 13 people, plus 14 more at Foundry Michelangelo. And the business is growing — Powell says the company produced 50 percent as many orders in the first quarter of 2019 as it did in all of 2018.

“We’re out of room here. We need more space,” Russo says. “We’re going to take Foundry Michelangelo to the next level.”

Battle Ground campus

“The next level” is the future Battle Ground campus: a 20-acre headquarters with 100,000 square feet of indoor space to bring all of the company’s operations under one roof — or rather a series of nearby roofs. Russo expects the completed campus to employ more than 100 people.

Russo says he always intended to expand the company’s headquarters and foundry, but the idea for the full campus didn’t take shape until Powell joined the company last year.

“I’ve been thinking about this for many years,” he said. “Casey said ‘you’ve got to think bigger.’ ”

Powell pitched the idea of the Battle Ground campus not only as a corporate headquarters, but as a place to train a new generation of metal workers and a means to revitalize the world of artistic metal casting.

Smaller foundries are struggling to keep their doors open, Powell says, and the industry took a major hit during the 2008 recession. Swan has been in the bronze casting business for 22 years, and he says he’s seen about 20 foundries disappear in that time.

The shrinking of the industry has led to a worker shortage over time, Swan says, because metalworking technical skills are typically built through years of work at a foundry.

“It’s hands-on,” he says. “You really have to look at it.”

Swan began working in foundries at 16 and started to pursue it as a career about three years later, learning from artists at other foundries and eventually opening the Boring foundry, originally under the name Bend Bronze. When the new Foundry Michelangelo opens in Battle Ground, Swan will become its lead operator.

Russo lives in Camas and Powell lives in Battle Ground, and they chose to set up the campus in Battle Ground because it’s “a little bit off the beaten track,” according to Powell.

Russo and Powell say they already have a site in mind for the campus, but they can’t reveal it yet. But they have a pretty good idea of how the campus will look, with a five-phase plan for constructing each of the core features.

Phase one is a new headquarters building for the company’s staff. Phase two is a new showroom building, increasing the show floor space to as much as 20,000 square feet.

Phase three is to create the Foundry Michelangelo itself, a larger-scale version of the Boring facility designed from the ground up to be a state-of-the-art operation, with all the necessary tools and space to go from original wax sculptures to finished bronze.

Phase four is the mold rooms to house the company’s ever-growing collection of molds. And finally, stage five will be the “Academy Michelangelo,” with the facilities to allow artists and sculptors to learn the trade.

The campus will include a sculpture garden and is intended to be open and accessible to members of the public who want to get a firsthand look at the foundry operation. The goal is twofold: Inspire and train the next generation of bronze workers, and create a large foundry operation that can sustain itself at a time when the industry is contracting.

“This is a cottage industry,” Powell says. “There are foundries all over the place, but they’re small. We’re going to turn it into something else. You’ve got to have a vision, something you’re shooing for. This is it.”

The $20 million cost of the Battle Ground facility is expected to cover all five phases of the project, Russo says, as well as the necessary site improvements. Treasure Investments has more than 100 shareholders, he says, including a group of investors who are supplying part of the funding — though part of the funding is also coming from the revenue that Foundry Michelangelo is already generating.

“I’ve never seen a resurgence in the art world like I have right now,” Russo says.

Their goal is to be under construction by the end of this year, and to transition the Boring foundry’s operations to the new facility in about 18 months.

Source Article link: https://www.columbian.com

Anthony Macuk

Columbian business reporter

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Foundry Michelangelo and Founder Mark Russo Redesign Top Selling Sculpture of Patriotic Bronze Eagle

TIC — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 16:30:52 +0000

BATTLE GROUND, Wash., February 8, 2019 – Initially commissioned in 2006, the bronze sculpture The American Patriot depicts a 46” tall American bald eagle landing on article one of the U.S. Constitution with the olive branch containing 13 olives and 13 leaves on one side and 13 arrows clutched in its talons on the other. World-renowned artist Lorenzo E. Ghiglieri created the sculpture after being commissioned by Mark Russo, Founder and Chairman of Foundry Michelangelo. “When I originally had the idea for the piece, I was looking at the back of a one dollar bill and noticed the image, which is also the Great Seal of the United States of America. The image is the American eagle with the olive branch on one side and 13 arrows on the other. A great symbol, I thought; my first question was, how do you sculpt that? As the piece is free floating and not attached to anything. Then, it came to me. Let’s set the piece on top of the U.S. Constitution. When I approached Lorenzo, he loved the design and concept, and we began work on the piece. His only stipulation was that I was the one who had to create the base and constitution the eagle was landing on,” says Mark Russo. “I will make the best eagle I have ever made, but I’m not going to carve out the base and a thousand words, that’s going to be an impossible task,” says Lorenzo.

The constitution did prove to be the biggest challenge with the piece. “This put me to the task as I am a great designer but not a sculptor. How do you place a 100-pound bronze eagle on top of a government document that is pleasing to the eye and that can be cast in the lost wax casting process to the level of a premier world-class sculpture? This was the problem I had to solve, as Lorenzo was currently sculpting an amazing eagle and the best he has ever done. I used polystyrene foam as my base and cut it with a band saw measuring 18” wide by 28” long and 1/4” in depth. This pliable sheet of foam was my base. I inserted sculpting armature into all the edges so that it would hold its shape into the final design. The next step was the text. I hired an engraving company to digitally etch the font and script from Article One of the U.S. Constitution into a copper plate. After five different attempts, perfection was discovered as we lasered the text onto a 1/16-inch magnesium plate. This allowed me to bend the text and plate into the clay and foam base that I created making the perfect base for the piece. Most importantly the plate was readable, and we were able to pull a great master mold impression from the original creation,” says Mark Russo.

The American Patriot was originally created as a limited edition in bronze with an edition size of 777. After successfully selling 167 of the pieces, the original rubber/plaster mold began to deteriorate to a point where no more castings could be produced, so the sculpture was no longer marketed. At the request of numerous high-end art galleries and new customers wanting the piece, Mark Russo and Foundry Michelangelo decided to restore and redesign the sculpture. “That was one of our hottest selling pieces. It generated millions of dollars in revenue, and now it’s time to bring it back, but we need to make it even better,” says Russo. The process was relatively simple in that the company used the original mold and poured a soft wax of the piece. Although the mold was in bad shape most of the eagle poured very well, and the part that was in the worst condition was the text from the constitution. The good news was that Mark kept the magnesium plate used for the original production. A new more detailed eagle was re-sculpted, the piece was raised a few inches, and a new base was made to include a medallion with the Great Seal of the United States. The edition size was also reduced to only 350 in bronze, 10 in pure silver, and 1 in solid gold. Now complete, the piece is truly amazing. Over 20 of the new Eagles have already been cast in bronze with many more on order. Our second pure silver American Patriot was also cast with over 1000 troy ounces of .999 pure silver, and another three silver pieces have already been ordered. This new image is now on display in many high-end art galleries to include locations in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Aspen, Vail, Beaver Creek, Colorado, and many others. On Jan. 9 of 2019, Foundry Michelangelo unveiled the 1000 troy ounce silver eagle at the National Annual Safari Club Convention in Reno, Nevada.

About Foundry Michelangelo

Foundry Michelangelo has a diverse business platform, creating and providing fine art in original sculptures from small desktop images and collectibles to larger than life heroic monuments. The company’s master mold collection contains over 1000 original molds from world-famous artists in the United States and around the globe. For more information, visit foundrymichelangelo.com.

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