When Claire was eight years old, her mother taught her how to sew a pair of pajamas. One day she asked for a dress she saw in a department store window and the reply was, “Why don’t you make one just like it, instead?” So she did. And by the time she was a teenager, Claire was making bikinis and Nehru jackets for family and friends.

Ten years later while sitting in the park with her paintings, Claire’s brother suggested she go back to school to study computer science. It was the late seventies and her only computer experience was using an FTD terminal in a florist shop. Although she had no interest in computers, she took the entrance exam anyway, to make her brother happy.

After passing the exam by one point, it occurred to her that studying computer science might help her land  a job designing computer games, which seemed a good fit for her talents. So after class she would go home and get down on the floor to draw pictures of operating systems and telecommunications to help her understand what they were talking about.

Before long, she landed an interview with the head of development for a small video game company. Claire shared with him her storyboard for an original game concept based on a childhood memory of her dad bombing gophers in the garden. He liked it and asked if he could take it to the back office for a minute. She said, “Sure!” but didn’t hear back after the interview. After a couple of weeks she followed up and was told that the company had been acquired by Sega and that the person who interviewed her had gone to Atari.

A few years later while at Chuck E. Cheese with her boys, one of them said, “Hey Mom! There’s your game!” And there it was. Hmm… So although she didn’t get the job, Claire lays claim as mother of the classic video arcade game, “Dig Dug.”

Fast forward and Claire, now in her early seventies, is retired after a forty-year career in the software industry, where she produced product documentation and user training for innovators such as Magento, eBay, and Adobe. She credits her easy-to-follow tutorials to the years she spent deciphering sewing instructions.

Claire’s home is on the site of a former citrus grove and is graced by many trees, including a Seville orange that is traditionally used to make marmalade. In 2017, Claire’s marmalade won Gold and Silver in the homemade category at the Dalemain World Marmalade Awards in the United Kingdom.

Soon after, Claire came across a video of the Flow Hive from Australia with faucets that dispense honey. Within a few months, she had her beekeeping license and zoning permit.

What started out as a desire to protect her beehives from falling palm fronds evolved into an enclosed apiary with a configurable flight portal. After making a couple of prototypes, she applied for, and was granted a utility patent for her invention. 

Claire has combined her various interests with creative energy, tenacity, and experience to produce a product that solves a problem and is fun to use.