Clarice Cliff Scarlett, who helped her with the ware, and soon a more professional 'backstamp' was made, which carried Cliff's facsimile signature, and proclaimed "Hand painted Bizarre by Clarice Cliff, Newport Pottery England". This backstamp was in fact to lead to "Bizarre" being used as an umbrella name for her entire pattern range, so that the factory then had to refer to the first pieces in the simple triangles as "Original Bizarre". In March 1927 Colley Shorter (who acted very independently of his brother, Guy), sent Cliff to the Royal College of Art in Kensington, London for two brief periods of study
Clarice Cliff mastered this she changed jobs to learn freehand painting at another potbank, at the same time studying art and sculpture at the Burslem School of Art in the evenings. In 1916,Cliff made the rather unusual decision to move to the factory of A.J. Wilkinson at Newport, Burslem, to improve her career opportunities. This necessitated a lengthy journey to work. This was an unusual start to an unusual career; most young women in the Staffordshire Potteries were on 'apprentice wages', and having mastered a particular task, stayed with that to maximise their income. However, Cliff was ambitious and acquired skills in