JEN TOWNSEND has an MFA from SIU Carbondale in jewelry and metalsmithing. In addition to being a studio jeweler and author, she has taught at Penland School of Crafts and at Millersville University, among others, and has served on the Board of the Society of North American Goldsmiths. Townsend’s work is in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum. 

RENÉE ZETTLE-STERLING received her MFA in sculpture and her MA in jewelry and metalsmithing from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. A professor of art and design at Grand Valley State University, she has exhibited and lectured on her work nationally and internationally and has been featured in many publications. Zettle-Sterling also served as President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.

Genesis

CAST: Art and Objects Made Using Humanity's Most Transformational Process developed through a series of conversations about casting, our love of the process, and our unrequited desire for great reading material about it. We have taught casting for many years and wished we had a book for students that showed casting’s many strengths in the creation of art and objects. As artists who cast, we have wished for a book that we could look to for inspiration—a place to see the pinnacle of the process in the work we admire most. Many manuals address the technical side of casting and all of its complexities, but we have never seen one that reveres the process, shows its many unique and beautiful applications, and inspires makers to use casting in their own work. Since the book we longed for didn't exist, we decided to write it.