Editing Clarice Cliff (section)

== Early life ==
 [[Image:Ravel Conical coffee ware.jpg|right|thumb|Clarice's 'Ravel' pattern on conical shape coffee pot, sugar, and cream – 1930.]]
Cliff's ancestors moved from the [[Eccleshall]] area to [[Tunstall, Staffordshire|Tunstall]], [[Stoke-on-Trent]], around 1725. Cliff was born on the terrace of a modest house in Meir Street on 20 January 1899.<ref name="website">{{Cite web|url=http://claricecliff.com/story|title=History of Clarice Cliff, one of the World's Most Influential Ceramics Artists|website=claricecliff.com|access-date=2017-02-24}}</ref> Her father, Harry Thomas Cliff, worked at an [[iron foundry]] in [[Tunstall, Staffordshire|Tunstall]]. Her mother Ann (née Machin) washed clothes to supplement the family income. They had seven children.<ref>Wentworth-Sheilds Peter<!-- 'Sheilds' IS how he spells his name -->, Johnson Kay: ''Clarice Cliff'', L'Odeon publishing 1976/1981</ref><ref name=ox>Graves, A. (2004-09-23). Cliff, Clarice (1899–1972), ceramic designer and art director. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 19 Jan. 2018, See [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-38546 link]</ref>

Cliff was sent to a different school than her siblings. After school, she would visit her aunt, who was a hand-painter.<ref name=ox/><ref>The decorating shops in many Staffordshire factories were almost totally staffed by women on seven year 'apprenticeships' who were called ''hand painters''. The term is still correct in Staffordshire, though the art of hand painting onto ware is now rarely seen commercially.</ref> She made [[papier-mâché]] models at school for a local pottery company.<ref>Wentworth-Sheilds Peter, Johnson Kay: ''Clarice Cliff'', L'Odeon publishing 1976/1981</ref>

At age 13, Cliff started working in the pottery industry as a [[gilding|gilder]]. She added gold lines on pottery of traditional design. Later, she learned freehand painting at another [[potbank]].<ref>A Staffordshire term for a pottery factory, probably because they had a 'bank' of clay for making the 'pots'.</ref> She also studied art and sculpture at the [[Burslem School of Art]].