CAST: Art and Objects Made Using Humanity’s Most Transformational Process

Next Generation Indies Book Awards: Art, Best Overall Design Non-Fiction, and the Grand Prize (First Place) in Non-Fiction 
Eric Hoffer Award: Art and First Horizon Award, Shortlist for Grand Prize
The Independent Press Awards: Fine Art and Coffee Table Books
The International Book Awards: Art, Finalist in Best Interior Design
Foreword Indies: Finalist in Art 

CAST captures the beauty and history of how our world is made.
Creation can be both practical and artistic, utilitarian and exciting. A skilled laborer can paint a house or an artist can paint a canvas. This duality is one of the miracles of casting. The process of using a mold to give material form has revolutionized art, metalwork, ceramics, glasswork, jewelry and countless other materials throughout history and into today.

CAST: Art and Objects Made Using Humanity’s Most Transformational Process [June 2017, Schiffer Publishing] by Jen Townsend and Renée Zettle-Sterling brings together the writing of seven different experts and over 800 images to create the first-ever, in-depth resource on the 6,000-year-old technique.

Casting has given us everything from statuary to toilets and bricks to wedding rings - its influence on our world is hard to overstate. Since the industrial revolution though, casting’s reputation has been in decline and unfortunately, now it’s associated with cheap, mass-produced, meaningless ‘stuff.’ We understand why people think this way, but it’s an over-simplification and a mischaracterization. Casting is a process just like any other - it can be done well or poorly and be the right or wrong choice in the creation of any given object; casting can be used to mass-produce plastic toys or in the creation of a one-of-a-kind Renaissance bronze.
/ Townsend, a jeweler and metalsmith

All you have to do is flip through CAST to see how incredibly useful, diverse, and endlessly interesting casting can be.
/ Zettle-Sterling, a professor of Three-Dimensional Design, Jewelry, Metalsmithing, and Sculpture at Grand Valley State University.


The beautiful photos, in compelling juxtapositions, let readers discover everyday objects and artistic masterpieces all created using casting.
CAST includes writings on casting as it relates to Art History (by Suzanne Ramljak), Ceramics (by Ezra Shales, PhD), Glass (by Susie Silbert), Large Metal (by Joseph Antenucci Becherer, PhD), Jewelry (by Jen Townsend), and Alternative Materials (by Elaine King). A multi-disciplinary approach - including everything from traditional lost wax casting in non-ferrous metals to casting rubber, glass, porcelain, plaster, and some very unexpected materials - makes this an essential resource for artists, craftspeople, historians, designers, and everyone interested in the objects that populate our world.

CAST  brings to light:
·        The history of casting and its current applications in the creation of art and objects
·        The process’s impact on human existence
·        The common thread between craftspeople, manufacturers, and artists
·        The omnipresence of casting in our lives
·        That you’re a caster if you’ve made ice cubes, Jell-O, or muffins

One of the most exciting parts of CAST is the image pairings. This mélange of media and approaches was thoughtfully designed to pique curiosity and foster new ways of thinking about casting and how things are made, from classical bronzes to kitchen sinks and plastic monobloc chairs to wedding bands.

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