Some people call Tom Cassella a Renaissance man.

"I don't know what that means," Cassella says with a laugh, "but I think it's a step up from 'jack of all trades.'"

In his Wareham-based 3D Creation Studios, Cassella has built sets and props for Publishers Clearing House, three-dimensional signs for the nonprofit Gives to Give and Wareham Community Television, among others, and has created backdrops and displays for the annual Bog Fright Night haunted ride through the A.D. Makepeace Company's property.

A carpenter by trade, Cassella says he got bored with typical work.

"How many bathrooms can you do? How many kitchens can you do? How many decks can you do? … That's what I did for years and I wanted to get more creative," he expalined.

Sure, he still does those things, but in his studio, he says: "I paint. I construct. I invent."

Made with foam, plastic, wood, and other materials, Cassella's designs are lightweight, but come to life.

Publishers Clearing House needed a front door and a bathroom for still photos and television commercials. Cassella made the company a two-sided, hallow door painted red on one side and white on the other, for variety.

The bathroom set was similarly two-sided. He painted the bathroom tiles and wallpaper — one side was faux green tile and the other was white subway tiles — but to the human eye, the designs looked straight out of an aisle at Lowe's.

"Everything is lightweight, but everything is not real," says Cassella, a proud graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School in New York, class of 1977.

Locally, Wareham Community Television needed an outdoor sign to let passersby know about upcoming programming and meetings.

"I said, 'You really want a sandwich board like a bakery?'" Cassella recalled.

WCTV ended up with a giant faux television with a message board where a screen would be.

Cassella also made the station huge call letters — a W, C, T, and V — that can be used in the studio or easily moved to remote shoots to put a set together quickly. If you watched the station's annual auction in the spring, you saw the letters on camera.

In Florida, where Cassella lives part-time, Leigh Ann's Coffee House wanted a sign that could become a landmark.

Cassella created a huge coffee cup that could be seen from the road. Now, he says, souvenir shops sell tiny replicas.

"It became one of those things that they sold to tourists," Cassella says.

Sometimes, his creations are a bit too believable.

Cassella created a faux vault around a door to his previous studio, but when he opened the space to visitors, people were confused.

"They thought you had to [unlock] the vault…" he explained. Really, you just had to push the door to enter. "Nobody wanted to come in." Oops!

Cassella admits that this area doesn't have the greatest market for sets, props, and other elaborate creations.

"I wish I could say I get to do that fun stuff every day," he said. "But even in my carpentry, I like to do things a little edgy."

And when he's not building stuff, he gets crafty. Cassella makes lamps, cutting boards, cheese trays, hooks from real lobster claws, and anything else that strikes his fancy.

"I love natural stuff," Cassella says, showing off the lobster claws made into hooks after being strengthened by epoxy.

"These are clam shells glued back together," he added while picking up a clam from a bowl of decorative shells. "Who in their right mind would do that…?"

His 800-square-foot studio, located at 2843 Cranberry Highway in an old warehouse, is a testament to his creativity.

Folding, double-rise stairs — that is, each stair is half the size it would be — lead to a loft with a small office.

"By eliminating the half of the stair you never use," Cassella explains, "it takes up half the space." But feels the same to the user.

Finished creations and in-progress masterpieces cover the workbenches in the space.

"When people ask me what I'm doing, I say, 'Oh, I'm playing,'" he said. "I love being in my shop. I love creating stuff. I love when my brain is just on fire."

Referring to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, Cassella says: "That's my RISD inside there. Without the $280,000 tuition."

Check out the galleries to see some of Tom Cassella's work. Want to buy anything? A selection of items is available at The Drawing Room/Anthi Frangiadis Associates, 11 Spring Street, Marion. For more information, visit 3DCreationStudios.com.