After studying History (Hons) at Manchester University, Dorothy was teaching at Ecclesfield Grammar School in Sheffield when she took up pottery as a hobby.  She was advised to come to the Leach Pottery as a student by Dora Billington, who taught ceramics at the Royal College of Art in London, and Kemp thus spent a short time with Bernard LEACH before WWII at Dartington, making slipware, subsequently coming to St Ives to work at the Pottery during the war.

Dorothy wrote English Slipware and How To Make It, a book primarily for secondary school students, instructing them in techniques and standards in pottery. She taught ceramics as part of the A-level Art curriculum at a time when it was first being introduced into schools, and set up a workshop at her home.  She particularly enjoyed seeing a studio pottery at work: making and firing good pots. The V&A, London holds examples of her work (1950).