Daughter of renowned historian and naturalist Dr Rica Erickson and her husband Sydney, Dorothy grew up on their farm at Bolgart before attending Methodist Ladies College from 1948-1956. She won her first Statewide prize for crafts at eight and was in an international children’s art exhibition when eleven. She became a primary teacher and then lived in London where she studied at the Chelsea Institute and worked at Kew Herbarium and the Natural History Museum making trips abroad to study the arts and architecture. On her return she became Headmaster of Canning Vale Primary School and studied at the newly created Western Australian Institute of Technology where she took an Associateship in Art, a BA in Design and then lectured in Design History, 3D Design Jewellery and Silversmithing and Technology. She married Town Planning Commissioner Dr David Carr in 1973. Opening her own studio in 1980, she travelled widely and pursued an international career before undertaking a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Western Australia with time at the Royal College of Art in London.

Curious from a young age, love of natural history and landscape have shaped her artistic sensibilities and a social conscience has seen her research and document the art and design heritage of Western Australia.

She says of her jewellery: “My work has varied considerably over the years, but enduring interests are colour, geometry and nature. I have bodies of work which reflect the light and land of Western Australia, others that play with kinetics in jewellery and yet others where there is a focus on precious gemstones to translate the paintings of Austrian Gustav Klimt or Western Australian wildflowers into jewels to wear. The interest in Klimt is the result of a friendship with Austrian jeweller Erika Leitner who has welcomed me into her home and studio since 1980 while the wildflower works are tributes to her my mother.