When he was a child, Josiah had smallpox, but he survived (did not die). The smallpox injured his knee, so he could not easily work as a potter. Instead, he worked hard to design pottery. Working as an apprentice, Wedgwood learned many techniques for making pottery. He used his skills to make one of the first pottery factories, Ivy Works, in Burslem, now part of Stoke-on-Trent.