Portland Cement silos reduction print. 

Inspired by the industrial history of the Thames Estuary - the coast of Kent is littered with the remains of quarries and brickworks and if - like me- you find beauty in these derelict buildings, you may enjoy walking the public footpath directly under these railway silos at the North Sea Terminal on the Isle of Grain. These are the former cement loading silos of the Portland Cement Company, with the rusting sheds at the top was the housing for the conveyor belt that delivered chalk from the nearby quarries.The site is now owned by Brett Aggregates and it is still used as a gravel works, receiving sea-dredged aggregate from barges that is transported via conveyor belts and jetties onto railway carriages - and a public footpath runs all the way through this.

- 7-layer reduction print

- custom grey Hawthorn stay-open relief printing inks

- size of print - 5 x 5 inches (approx 12.5 cm square)

- mounted in a soft white mount for a 7 x 7 inch frame

- limited variable edition of 11.

This is a limited variable edition of 11 and no further editions can be made from these blocks due to the reduction print process. 'Variable' denotes that there are minor differences between individal prints caused by printmaking techniques that lead to variations - such as deliberate underinking of the cement silo walls, or the variation in the sky gradient. 

I design and carve each motif into linoleum before inking the plate and printing it using Alma or Albert, my Victorian cast iron manual book presses. To make a reduction linocut print, the design is gradually carved away from the same linoleum plate, destroying the plate in the process.  All the paper pieces have to be registered to the plate exactly so that the inked up areas fall into the same place on the paper each time. Depending on the number of layers, reduction prints can take several weeks to complete.