American Studio Craft Movement
Post-war American makers who designed and built one-off furniture, glass, ceramics and metalwork in their own studios rather than for factories.
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About
From the 1940s many Americans chose to design and make objects by hand, one at a time, in their own workshops. Wharton Esherick had led the way before the war, turning furniture, stairs and door frames into sculpture. George Nakashima in New Hope, Pennsylvania, kept the natural edges of walnut slabs and bridged their cracks with butterfly keys; Sam Maloof in Southern California shaped rocking chairs whose joints flow into arms and runners.
Schools such as Cranbrook and the School for American Craftsmen trained many of these makers. The approach spread across media: Harvey Littleton's glassblowing workshops in Toledo in 1962 launched studio glass, and Peter Voulkos pushed clay towards abstract sculpture. In the 1960s Wendell Castle carved stacked laminates, and Paul Evans and Phillip Lloyd Powell made welded metal cabinets in New Hope. Visible tool marks, figured timber and a maker's signature are the usual signs.
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