Johnson's Works (Yellow)

This is a three-stage reduction linocut of Johnson's Sanitary Works' remaining two bottle ovens in Stoke-on-Trent. The factory complex was huge, across three adjacent sites along the Caldon Canal. This part was named the Trent Works and was built in 1896. In the third photo above you can see some of the beautiful ceramics that were produced there, which are now on show at the Flushed With Pride collection at Gladstone Pottery Museum.
 
Production on site was gradually modernised after the Clean Air Act in the 1950's, with dozens of bottle kilns being demolished to make way for modern, more efficient gas kilns. Thankfully, these two kilns were preserved and are now listed. Production on site gradually changed due to demand, the nearby tableware factories were aquired by Wedgwood, and the sanitary works was eventually closed.  The remains of the original factories were finally demolished in the early 2000's after years of dereliction and vandalism, and the Trent Works site has now been redeveloped as a housing estate beside the canal, with the kilns as a centrepiece. You can see the blocks of flats behind them in the artwork. 
 
It is printed in two colourways, this is the yellow-biased version, on white Japanese Ho-Sho paper paper, using Caligo Safewash relief ink. The image is 10cm x 15cm, (roughly A6) and the paper is approximately A4. Each print is hand-inked and hand-printed, so each is slightly different giving them each a unique quality. As this is a reduction print, the lino plate is gradually cut away during the process so that no more prints can be made. This is a limited, signed edition of 19.