Julian Fullerton Smith has been working with clay for over 25 years, establishing his own studio in Kinsale in 1996. Julian has established himself as one of Ireland’s foremost Raku artists. Raku is a technique originating in Japan in the sixteenth century, in which work is rapidly fired and removed from the kiln when glowing red-hot. The piece is then placed in a container with combustible materials creating striking colours using metallic oxides. The charm of Raku lies in its use of primitive materials which nevertheless can produce highly sophisticated results.