Since California-born sculptor and ceramist Simone Bodmer-Turner opened her studio in Brooklyn in 2018, her distinctively shaped pieces have pushed the boundaries of form, material and practicality. For Bodmer-Turner, creating functional objects out of clay—not just vases, but also chairs, fireplaces and shelving—has been a satisfying challenge. “I don’t use it in the way that most people do,” she says. “Everybody perceives ceramics as being super fragile, but the clay I use has so much sand in it that it’s more like a stone.” 

In the fall of 2021, Bodmer-Turner relocated from New York to western Massachusetts, allowing her to rekindle her love of ceramics as a natural art form. She’s also settled into a smaller scale, making one-off sculptures rather than fashioning ...