Her Grandmother Made Lace. Mariana Turns It Into Clay.
STREET & SEA | Notes on Portugal — Issue 01
Street & Sea (RuaMar) is our visual notebook of living Portugal: conversations and short films from the studios, kitchens, vineyards, and other places behind the journeys we create.
Mariana Sampaio is a ceramicist and educator based in Caldas da Rainha.
A doily is not the obvious starting point for a ceramics studio. For Mariana Sampaio, it was the right one.
When she opened Mariana Sampaio Studio in Caldas da Rainha, her grandmother was her biggest inspiration. The city is one of Portugal’s premier ceramic capitals, historically renowned for its rich clay deposits, traditional pottery masters, and iconic glazed designs.
That connection reaches across generations. Her grandmothers, great-grandmothers, mother, and aunts all made doilies a creative escape woven into their daily lives. Mariana collects their work, simplifies the patterns, and carries their memory forward into functional ceramic pieces made for everyday tables.
“It’s my way of honouring their work and a way of carrying some kind of heritage from their lives and their work as well.”
The RuaMar perspective
This is what we like about spending time with artisans and makers: you start noticing what they notice.
With Mariana, a ceramic plate leads back to a street pattern. Lacework patterns lead back to family hands. Something you might have admired in a shop window on a morning stroll becomes a story you remember every time you gather around a dinner table.
Those connections guide the journeys we create at RuaMar. We think about who to meet, which places belong together, and where to leave room for an unplanned conversation after lunch, not just what to fit into a day.
Bringing our background in film to each entry in our visual notebook, we work with our collaborators to shape cinematic portraits for Street & Sea and their own digital channels. Their perspective guides the story from the first conversation to the finished film.
These places and stories aren't secrets; they are simply Portugal living at its own rhythm. Across art, food, design, and the settings that connect them, Street & Sea is an invitation to step inside these creative collaborations. It’s how we honor the hosts, kitchens, and minds shaping the country's alma today—so that whether you are here for a few days or a week or two, you feel like a welcomed guest.
Discover Mariana Sampaio Studio | Explore our Portugal journeys
“About Mariana Sampaio Studio
Mariana Sampaio is a ceramicist and educator from Golegã who lives and works in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, where she owns Mariana Sampaio Studio. Her ceramics draw on family doilies, Portuguese calçada, and traditional techniques she has learned from experienced masters, including tile painting and work on the wheel. She also teaches, carrying Portuguese customs and traditions into her own work and sharing them with others. She features in Issue 01 of RuaMar’s Street & Sea: Notes on Portugal.”
