Julia studied ceramics at Glasgow School of Art and graduated in 1996.  After travel in the USA for two years she settled back in Glasgow and worked on community art projects until 2010 when she moved to the Highlands. She has been making her own pottery in her garden studio since then and has exhibited nationally and internationally and featured in several magazines including Vogue and Country Living. Her work has been commissioned by the National Museum of Scotland and The National Trust. 

Julia Smith is a maker and illustrator based in a coastal village the Highlands of Scotland. Wildlife inhabiting the forests, beaches and mountains are constant sources of inspiration for her and feature on her range of rustic earthenware pottery. Capturing character and narrative in her illustrations drive her and the colourful detailed drawings complement the natural earthy tones in her glazes.

Alongside her small production pottery line she makes larger one off hand built pots and vases from printed clay slabs. These pots combine several printing processes and are created in a intuitive and spontaneous way allowing for a sense of freedom and play in contrast to the disciplined work of the production line.

Julia’s tableware is thrown in red earthenware clay with hand modelled handles added and fired in an electric kiln. She mixes her own glazes and fires them to 1120 degrees centigrade. Her illustrations are reproduced as decals and fired on the glazed surface at 800 degrees. 

For her slab built pots she reconstitutes her throwing trimmings and slurry in to clay slip. She screen-prints, stencils or/ and paints with coloured slip and underglazes on to plaster batts then pours the reconstituted clay slip over the image.  The resulting clay slabs once leather hard are peeled away from the plaster batt and she hand builds her pots with them. They are fired to the same temperatures as the tableware and decals are often applied.