Artist Simone Bodmer-Turner Trades New York City for Rural Massachusetts, Expanding Her Creative Practice With Partner Scott MacDonough

This past February, the artist finally fired back up the kilns—there’s one installed in a barn on the property, roomy enough for her ceramic chairs and lamps, another small one in the basement, and two more in the production facility she set up in a former mill building nearby. From that new space she’s been fine-tuning bowls, plates, cups, and candlesticks, all part of her first tableware collection, set to launch this winter. “I want them to be the in-between of sturdy and elegant,” Bodmer-Turner says, showing off a test run of dishes that are destined to become just a hair thinner with a more uniform glaze. “They get this really lovely feel from passing back and forth between the wheel and hand-building.”

MacDonough with a forthcoming pendant that captures the movement of a water droplet. It borrows a topographical element from the ceiling relief that Bodmer-Turner and he created; a group of sconces are also in development.

A collection of maquettes reflects the studio’s expansion since Bodmer Turner’s partner, Scott MacDonough, joined as the director of interiors. The rectangular model (center) is for a sculpted ceiling relief they installed in a Manhattan home.

To play a role in everyday meals is something of a homecoming for Bodmer-Turner. A child of Berkeley, California, she spent her early career working in restaurant kitchens, on farms, and at a start-up that connected local growers and bakers with city folk. “It felt important to reengage with what I was doing before,” she says of this interplay between land and food. Meanwhile, she’s taken up pruning, hoping to coax scraggly apple trees toward a distant future harvest. It’s an exercise in patience and a window into her slow-burn creative drive.

The studio’s site-specific plaster installations are another example of that unfolding evolution. MacDonough, a trained engineer with a background in sculpture and photography, joined earlier this year as the director of interiors—though his informal support can be traced back to 2022, when he helped troubleshoot the execution of an eight-foot-tall mirror headed to Emma Scully’s Design Miami booth. “Little by little, projects came in where Simone needed some structural advice,” MacDonough says of their complementary modes. “I admire her ability to see shapes and to understand how that fits into a living environment.” He often translates her hand-formed maquettes into large-scale reliefs, like the undulating fireplace surround sitting in the upstairs studio, destined for a Brooklyn project by the interior designer Sebastian Zuchowicki; or the topographical ceiling the couple installed in a NoHo apartment, featuring a stalactite-like drop that has inspired a pendant lamp debuting in early 2026.

Sketches on the table show the evolution of the tableware collection, including a bell-shaped mug. It’s a point of entry, says Bodmer-Turner, who collects ceramics on her travels. “I buy one cup to see how it handles, how it washes, how it takes food stains.”

Bodmer-Turner fires her large-scale ceramic works, like this hand-modeled chair, in a kiln stationed in a barn on-site. “The practice really shifts seasonally,” she says. Come winter, she leaves the uninsulated barn and heads inside.

Bodmer-Turner draws on a range of influences, including the artists Isamu Noguchi (whose Akari lantern hangs above the worktable) and Valentine Schlegel. Her background in restaurant work and farming also grounds her interest in creating a sustainable food culture.

After making her name with a solo practice, Bodmer-Turner has enjoyed seeing how “sharing a vision and letting other people into the process strengthens rather than dilutes it.” At her new production space, she’s exploring different techniques for tableware with Justine Barrett Figura, her director of ceramic development. The wide-mouth Spade Vessels, which launched earlier this year, for example, use a new porcelain recipe by Barrett Figura; and with her input, Bodmer-Turner is introducing colored glazes on a series of mirrors headed to Emma Scully Gallery in October. Even the parade of recent houseguests has been its own kind of fodder. “We’ve been so busy that I’m just like, ‘Come over—we’ll feed you whatever we can find,’” Bodmer-Turner says. In turn, “it’s been feeding the work.”

This story appears in AD’s November issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.