Domay

Designer	Dorothy May Hope
Maker	Domay
Marks	Incised signature underglaze “Domay” to base with letter “S”  above.
Material	Slip
Description	Clear glazed press moulded slip.  Square dish with tab handle moulded to top of rim, angled sides to narrower base.  Square glazed foot-ring.  Off-white with harlequin interior.
Condition	Very good, No chips, cracks or crazing.
Number	No number
Production Date	Late 1950s
Width at rim	108mm
Width at Base	103mm
Depth	34mm
Length (with handle)	146mm
Weight	220gm
Volume
Acquisition	Salvo Store, Brandon Park 15th Oct 2012.
Rameking Reference Number	DOM 001-003

Domay was the name of a line of slipcast ware designed by Dorothy May Hope (nee Dundas; b:1917) in the 1950s and early 1960s and mainly sold through the Sydney department store David Jones.  Mostly plain angular somewhat geometric homewares, in plain or polka dot decoration.  Domay being a combination of her first names, Dorothy May.  She began her career at Nell McCredies pottery studio in 1941 over a shop (now demolished) in George Street, opposite Wynyard Railway Station.  Nell also taught pottery at the YWCA.   Potter Emily Bryce Carter c.1932 also first learnt pottery at McCredie's studio.  Nell’s work and that of her students was fired in the kiln at her home at 17 Stanley Road, Epping.

In 1942 Dorothy married Dental Mechanic and later builder Jack Hope before he joined a Dental Unit during the second world war.  In the early 1950s she went to the St George Technical College at Ultimo in Sydney.  At that time, the Department of Technical Education permitted the newly established New South Wales University of Technology (later the University of New South Wales) to conduct the technical college diploma courses in the same fields as university degree courses. They were still conducted at the College but under university patronage.

She and Jack had moved to Yowie Bay, to a large bayside site, now valued at over $1million.  It is a Sydney suburb, named after the aboriginal for “place of echoes”, not the mythological beast similar to the American Bigfoot.  She began a small commercial pottery there and employed staff to do the casting and cleaning the bodies but she said that she found the administrative side of the pottery dull.  If you think admin was dull in the early 60s, try running a business today.  She closed the business in 1962 and left Sydney to set up the still operating Thrumster Village Pottery which is a pottery and craft centre situated on almost 4ha of land 9km (6 miles) west of Port Macquarie on the Oxley Highway.  I think there may have been a bit more to it.  There was a credit squeeze in Australia then and the trade agreement with Japan was beginning to bite with a lot of potteries closing. 

As well as pottery at Thrumster, there are also leatherwork, copper enameling, hand made glassware and hand  crafted works on display.   Work from this time is mostly glazed earthenware in the earth toned glazed so popular at the time.  For more on Dorothy at Port Macquarie after her Domay years, I have copied what follows from Australian Pottery Blogs. 

“For the first six years, they produced earthenware from local clay and oxides. In 1967, they met Carl McConnell, who became a frequent visitor, helping the Hopes to build a wood-fired kiln, and to convert to stoneware and once-firing. Later, they changed to oil-firing and Dorothy started making large sculptural pieces and commissioned wall panels. In 1968, they started holding craft exhibitions. In 1975, they added two new buildings to the complex to enable Dorothy and other makers to hold weekend and week-long schools, and also to stage festivals.

In 1982, Jack built the Log Cabin Gallery as a third exhibition space. In 1986, they retired and sold the property, which still operates as a craft centre. In 1990, Dorothy published a slim book entitled “ Impressions in clay” about her life as a potter. Her work is marked with an impressed 'DH' and 'TV' for Thrumster Village. Jack, who did the jigger and jolleying work, used an incised 'JH' and 'TV'”.