Blue tit | Raku Ceramic

Julian Fullerton Smith is one of Ireland's pre-eminent ceramic Raku practitioners for over 35 years.  After training in Scotland and Wales, he moved to Ireland in 1995.  Initially he lived in Galway but soon discovered Kinsale, and established his own studio there in 1996.

Raku is a six century old ceramic firing technique originating in Japan. For Raku ceramic pieces are rapidly fired and when glowing red-hot they are taken from the kiln.  The piece is then placed in a container with combustible materials. The sudden drop in available oxygen and the chemical properties of the media it is smothered in creates striking colours using metallic oxides, but the ultimate outcome can never be fully controlled and only becomes apparent once the piece has cooled and can be leaned of encasing debris and ash.

Julian Smiths experience working in Raku is such that he controls the uncontrollable. He allows the raku process to work to full and strikingly unique effect, but confining its processes and resulting colour across controlled areas and planes of his surfaces. It works to stunning effect across his quirky and sometimes hyper sensual forms. A true master craftsman