Clarice Cliff into his home at Chetwynd House on Northwood Lane in Clayton, Staffordshire. This Arts and Crafts home had been designed in 1899 and was one of the earliest commissions of the British architects Parker and Unwin (Richard Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin) who were later heavily involved in the Welwyn Garden city project. During World War II only plain white pottery (utility ware) was permitted under wartime regulations, so Cliff assisted with management of the pottery but was not able to continue design work. Instead she concentrated her creative talents on gardening and the massive garden at Chetwynd House became
Clarice Cliff modelling figurines and vases, gilding, keeping pattern books and hand painting ware: outlining, enamelling (filling in colours within the outline) and banding (the radial bands on plates or vessels). In the early 1920s the decorating manager Jack Walker brought Cliff to the attention of one of the two factory owners, Arthur Colley Austin Shorter, who managed it with his brother Guy. Colley Shorter was 17 years older than Cliff, and as well as playing a major role in nurturing her skills and ideas, he was married but was later to be her husband. Cliff was given special attention by her