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 ware. It was produced in more muted colours, right until the start of the war in 1939. Other modelled shapes included the 1937 'Raffia' based on traditional basketware by Native Americans, decorated in a similar style to them with small blocks of colour. More popular was the heavily modelled "Harvest" ware, jugs and bowls modelled with corn and fruit. After the war this range was heavily marketed in North America (very patriotically) as "England". This later modelled ware attracts relatively low prices at auction. In 1940, after the death of Ann Shorter, Colley's wife, he married Cliff and she moved