Clarice Cliff (née Machin) took in washing to supplement the family income, and they had seven children. Cliff was sent to a different school from her siblings, and this perhaps prompted her more independent approach to her career, and her non-standard life style by Stoke-on-Trent standards. After school Cliff would visit an aunt who was a hand painters at a local pottery company, and she also made models from papier-mâché at school. At the age of 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry. Her first work was as a gilder, adding gold lines on ware of traditional design. Once she had
Clarice Cliff examples were produced under her direction, and the artists included such notable names as Duncan Grant, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth, Vanessa Bell, and Dame Laura Knight. The project 'Modern Art for the Table' was launched at Harrods London in October 1934 but received a mixed response from both the public and the press, though at the same time Cliff's own patterns and shapes were selling in large quantities around the world. Cliff's patterns are highly stylised and interpreted in strong colours, such as the 1933 "Honolulu" pattern. The trees are enamelled in red (coral) orange and yellow. Cliff produced a