DOUGLASS (Berks) – Imagine having a replica of the Shroud of Turin, a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth, a poster of the blueprints for the space shuttle, or the golf club used on the moon hanging on your wall or on display in your house. That is the focus of Artifactory Inc. – creating and distributing historically significant archaeological and aerospace artifacts.
The company was founded by CEO/President Steve Dymszo, who has been in the business of making replicas for more than 25 years. His previous experience is with making movie prop replicas and movie props, as founder of several movie-based replica companies.
Making historical replicas is something Dymszo had in mind for some time.
‘I had an idea that there probably was a need for these types of replicas – I hadn’t seen many,’ Dymszo said. ‘The next step was to call and ask ‘are you aware and would you buy.’ Then we started to formulate a plan.’
When Dymszo thought the time was right, he took his business plan to potential investors. From that point, things began to fall into place fairly quickly.
‘We got our first large funding in mid-August. We didn’t start looking for a facility until September and we moved in here in October. We didn’t have any major sales until right before Christmas, and began shipping in January,’ he added.
Dymszo said he considered two other locations – one in Hatfield and one in Limerick – before choosing the 2214 Farmington Road location, which provides 7,200 square feet of office and workspace.
Initially opening with nine employees, including wife Linda and daughters Mary and Stephanie, Dymszo said he is quickly reaching the point where he will need to hire additional employees. He said he expects to need expand to about 25 employees in the near future, hiring a bookkeeper, chief financial officer, a project manager, warehouse employees and employees to do some of the artistic work.
Dymszo said the company will ultimately offer up to 450 products. The company specializes in making replicas of biblical archaeological finds, Greek, Roman and Egyptian relics, Bible-based natural history items and aerospace items in materials ranging from resin, to cast metal, wood or fabric.
When Dymszo discovers an item he would like to replicate it may not be possible to physically touch the item to make a casting to create a mold of the object. In that case, Dymszo gets a high resolution scan of the item or photographs that can then be made into a prototype. Using a rapid prototyping machine, a 3D output of a digital image is made. Dymszo has a digital partner he has worked for about 12 years.
‘They can come in and run a white light scan on any object – as long as it’s not chrome plated. They can do a scan, and once we have the file we can increase and decrease the file to whatever size we want,’ he said.
Right now, most of the casting work for items is done in-house, along with 100 percent of the item fulfillment, but there are some production steps that Dymszo subcontracts out to one of the 40 to 50 U.S.-based companies with which he has a relationship. He said 90 percent of the work is being completed in the U.S.
In a short period of time, Dymszo has also established a working relationship with about 40 archaeologists around the world. Each piece comes with background provided by the archaeologists. Establishing the network has resulted in access to items that Artifactory can make as replicas.
The NASA items are documents that are in the public domain – NASA blueprints from the 60s and 70s and German space blueprints dating back to the 30s and 40s.
‘We found a gentleman who went and scanned all these files and cleaned them up,’ Dymszo said. ‘We asked him to stop doing what he was doing, and do it for us from now on. We did some test prints, and it worked well. We found a local printer who can do this for us. Our first run – we did 60 different prints. Edmund Scientifics just placed a big order.’
Another product Artifactory offers is a replica of the Shroud of Turin – a length of linen cloth regarded by many Christians as a contact relic of Jesus.
‘We received a high resolution scan from one of the priests that worked on the restoration team at the Vatican,’ Dymszo added.
According to the company website, Artifactory is the only company with access to the scan. While the version Artifactory produces is currently produced on polyester, Dymszo wants to produce it on a more authentic material for universities, museums or serious collectors, but he was told by suppliers it could not be done. Dymszo has since made contact with someone who thinks he can help.
‘It (the fabric) is a 3-in-1 herringbone weave not produced for thousands of years. This guy said he has the fabric already. We’re going to meet in Manhattan sometime in the next month to talk about a joint partnership.’
The marketplace for replicas is quite broad, according to Dymszo – including individuals, museums and universities. He said that as he talks to more people and organizations, he is discovering and exploring niche markets for the company’s products.
Artifactory has a website where the company can sell directly to customers. But the company is also talking directly with universities about how they could use replicas in teaching their courses.
‘All of this stuff right now, unless they take them (students) to the field museum, they can’t pick it up, touch it,’ Dymszo said. ‘We think there’s a huge worldwide demand. No-one has done it before, so people don’t quite get it yet. So you first have to convince people.’
That ‘convincing’ is also being carried out with museums. Dymszo said the museums need some convincing that it makes sense to carry replicas of the things people are seeing in the museum.
‘They get people hyped up, they see all these things. But can they buy a replica? No,’ he said.
He added that the company has come up with an innovative point of purchase display that features a QR code, which customers can scan with their smartphones to access a website to make a purchase, alleviating the need for museum stores to carry a large amount of inventory.
One item Dymszo is working to make available is a replica of the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay cylinder dating from the 6th century BC, and believed to be the first documented piece of evidence that said people could own property in old testament times. Dymszo said the piece is currently on tour, and he continues to work on getting permissions to do scans of the piece to get it into production.
Dymszo said he is currently looking for additional funding from private investors, grants or Small Business Association loans that will allow him to take Artifactory to the next level.
‘We want to hire more people and expand the operation,’ he said. ‘It (the funding) would allow us to get some more original fossils in, to acquire pieces, to get more staff working on casting pieces. Number two is getting more blueprints and number three is strategic partnerships for the Shroud of Turin and Aerospace items. The list is enormous.’
State Rep. David Maloney, R-130th Dist., during a recent visit to Artifactory, committed to look at where in the state there might be grants available, and to provide that information back to Dymszo.
For more information about Artifactory, visit www.artifactoryreplicas.com
