Hi, I'm Sam
Welcome to my studio. I'm Sam — designer, maker, and the person on the other side of every order that ships from sammayell.com.
Sam Mayell Ceramics is a small, handmade-from-scratch studio in Queenstown, New Zealand. I design, slip-cast, glaze and fire every piece myself, in small batches, from my home studio. What started as one-off pieces on the pottery wheel is now a quiet practice built around Ceramic Domes and Checkers — modular, mix-and-match wall art designed to live on your wall for decades.
Everything you see on the site began here, in this room, with my hands.
How it started
I trained as a photographer and graphic designer at the Design & Arts College of New Zealand, and spent years building visual identities for other people before I ever sat down at a wheel. Ceramics started as a side curiosity in 2020.
In 2024 the first dome was wheel-thrown, glazed by feel, and hung on my own wall. I noticed how light caught the curved surfaces through the day — how a flat wall suddenly had movement. I made twelve more. Then a hundred. Then I built a custom mould so I could make them again, and again, without compromising the surface. That moment is when Sam Mayell Ceramics became what it is today.
How it's made
Every piece starts in a mould I sculpted myself in our Queenstown studio. I pour locally sourced cream stoneware clay into the mould by hand, trim and clean each form individually, then load them into the kiln for the first bisque fire.
The glazing is where the magic — and the variation — lives. Each piece is hand-glazed in layered, reactive glazes that mirror the shifting alpine light outside the kiln room. Then back into the kiln, high-fired to over 1200°C, for a second firing that makes every dome rock-solid and in it for the long run.
Each batch is small. No two surfaces are ever identical.
Visit the gallery
If you're in Queenstown, come and see the work in person. Our gallery and retail space at 7 Earl Street is the only place in the world where you can browse the full glaze library of Ceramic Wall Art, hold the pieces in your hands, and build your own custom set across our shelves.
Out the back, we also run The Pottery Lounge — a relaxed, creative studio where you can paint a piece of pottery and make a one-of-a-kind souvenir of your time in New Zealand. Find workshop details and book your spot at thepotterylounge.co.nz.
7 Earl Street, Queenstown 9300
Open 7 Days: 10am - 6pm
Sam Mayell
A graduate of the Design & Arts College of New Zealand, Sam honed his eye for form and composition through photography and graphic design before discovering ceramics.
Since then, his studio has produced bespoke pieces for clients such as Microsoft and Royal Burn Farm Shop, along with a network of select retailers, cafés, and boutiques.
We also work directly with interior designers and homeowners on larger one-of-a-kind walls — if you've got a wall in mind, get in touch at hello@sammayell.com and we'll talk it through.
