Julian Smith is one of Ireland’s leading 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.nnAs each mask is handmade, there may be differences from the image shown.