[1][2] From the earliest furniture of the Arts and Crafts movement to modern-day works of art, studio furniture can be generalized as handmade functional objects that serve as a medium for intellectual and emotional expression and indicate social and cultural concerns of the maker or community.
[5] Studio furniture objects often embody creative and/or communicative intent, a unique design, elements of functionality (either implicit or explicit), craftsmanship, and an intimate understanding of material in their creation.
For example, a functional chair must be able to support the weight of the human body in a sitting position.
According to Howard Risatti in A Theory of Craft, "instead of being separated into stages, conception and execution are integrated so that a subtle feedback system occurs when physical properties of materials encounter conceptual form and conceptual form encounters physical material".
The skill of the maker and his or her ability to work with the subtleties and variations of the material, allowing those variations to inform and exalt the conceptual and functional goals of the piece, is intrinsically tied into the object’s design.