Julia Rai is an artist, writer, and teacher working predominately in metal clay. Well-known in the international metal clay community, she has been working with metal clay since 2004 and teaching it since 2007. She holds a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, multiple metal clay qualifications, and is a fully qualified further education teacher. Her magazine tutorials, articles, online tutorials, and videos are accessible through her website.

From 2008 until 2019, she worked on projects for the Metal Clay Masters Registry credential program, and she achieved Registry Level 5, the only person in the world to achieve this level. She also submitted a masterwork. The Registry program closed at the end of June 2019. To see all 50 projects Julia submitted over 10+ years, plus the masterwork, please visit her website

In 2008, Julia created the Metal Clay Academy website to provide a brand-neutral resource for metal clay artists. Julia was the webmaster, editor, and researcher for the website and updated it monthly with new content for 16 years. At the end of 2024, she gifted the domain and the website contents to the Alliance for Metal Clay Arts Worldwide (AMCAW).

Julia was involved in establishing and growing AMCAW between 2018 and 2024. Within AMCAW, Julia worked at the board and executive level and led several teams. Her final project was to lead the team that delivered the first live UK metal clay SINTER event for AMCAW, which ran in May 2024.

Her book, Making Metal Clay Jewellery, was published in 2017 and is available from Amazon.

She closed her metal clay school and stepped back from her most time-consuming metal clay commitments at the end of 2024. She is now focused on her family, travel, and metal clay work but still offers private one-to-one classes at all levels in her Rushden, Northamptonshire, UK studio.

Students interested in finding out more or taking a class with Julia can get details from her website – https://juliarai.co.uk