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 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