Utilisateur:Ānanda/Brouillon

En 1916, Cliff prit la décision surprenante de déménager dans l'usine de A.J. Wilkinson à Newport, Burslem, pour améliorer ses perspectives de carrière . La plupart des jeunes femmes dans les poteries du Staffordshire recevaient un "salaire d'apprentie" et, une fois qu'elles maîtrisaient une tâche particulière, y restaient pour maximiser leurs revenus. Cliff était ambitieuse et acquit des compétences dans le modelage de figurines et de vases, la dorure, la tenue de livres de modèles et la peinture à la main de la vaisselle : le contour, l'émaillage (remplissage des couleurs à l'intérieur du contour) et l'effet de bande (les bandes radiales sur les assiettes ou les récipients). Au début des années 1920, le directeur de la décoration, Jack Walker, attira l'attention de Cliff sur l'un des propriétaires de l'usine, Arthur Colley Austin Shorter , qui dirigeait l'entreprise avec son frère Guy. Colley Shorter avait 17 ans de plus que Cliff. Marié, il devint son amant (puis plus tard son mari) et l'aida à développer ses compétences et ses idées. Ensemble, ils se rendirent au Royal College of Art ainsi qu'à Paris .

In 1916,Cliff made the unusual decision to move to the factory of A.J. Wilkinson at Newport, Burslem, to improve her career opportunities. Most young women in the Staffordshire Potteries were on 'apprentice wages', and having mastered a particular task, stayed with that to maximise their income. Cliff was ambitious and acquired skills in 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 factory owners, Arthur Colley Austin Shorter, who managed the company with his brother Guy. Colley Shorter was 17 years older than Cliff. He nurtured her skills and ideas. He was married but was later to be her husband. Cliff was given special attention by her lover and she journeyed to the Royal College of Art and to Paris.

The first printed 'Bizarre' backstamp used on Clarice Cliff ware from 1928 to early 1936 in various styles.

Cliff was given a second apprenticeship at A. J. Wilkinson's in 1924 (when she was already 25 years old) primarily as a 'modeller' but she also worked with the factory designers John Butler and Fred Ridgway. They produced conservative, Victorian style ware – Butler had been the designer for over 20 years by this time. Eventually, Cliff's wide range of skills were recognised and in 1927 she was given her own studio at the adjoining Newport Pottery which Shorter had bought in 1920. Here Cliff was allowed to decorate some of the old defective 'glost' (white) ware in her own freehand patterns. For these she used on-glaze enamel colours, which enabled a brighter palette than underglaze colours.