At the age of six, she got a prolonged illness and was confined to bed for half a year, which became the major restriction of her childhood.
But she was not deprived of creative exploration, such as in modelling with clay found on the beach at Bude during the ritual annual fortnight at the seaside or in carving motor cars out of blocks of salt.
[2] Catharni was constantly experiencing changing schools in both the public and private systems because of her family's moving house.
She was eager for fame, excitement and exploration and then she applied to and was accepted by Liverpool University to study for a degree at the School of Veterinary Science.
Her approach remains consistent because the works are directly modelled in order to enable them to be fired to partially vitrified terracotta or to stoneware temperatures.
[4] Stern's bronze sculpture St Francis is in Chelmsford, and a terracotta St Francis is in St Giles' Church, Langford;[5] a bronze relief Seven Men in the Waistcoat of Edward Bright[6] (the Fat Man of Maldon), is in the Kings Head Centre, Maldon; she designed the logo (based on the Bright's coat motif) for a local walking club, the Maldon and Dengie Hundred Group [1].
The body of small bronzes which she was then accumulating formed the basis of her first and subsequent exhibitions in London at the Whibley Gallery.
Their son Ernest Hamilton Stern was born in 1886, was educated as a paymaster in the Royal Navy and retired with the rank of captain in 1946.
Catharni Stern's relationship with her mother was close and based on an empathy and friendship which overlaid and exceeded the simple mother/child bond.
This was in large measure because her mother was vulnerable to a recurrent manic-depressive illness but they all shared a perceptive interest in the creative arts.