Peter Laycock (1927-2009) was born in Glenelg, South Australia. A folk singer and maths teacher, he started potting as a hobby in 1952. In 1960, he and his wife Helen began selling pottery at Clifton Pugh's art colony 'Dunmoochin' at Cottles Bridge just outside Melbourne. In 1962, he started potting full-time and, in 1965, the couple set up their own studio at Dunmoochin, not far from fellow potter Alma Shanahan. In 1969, he joined the Potter's Cottage at Warrandyte as a teacher, and he was the first (interim) president of the Craft Association of Victoria when it was formed in 1970. In the same year, Sue Ford published a photographic record of the Laycocks at work, Fire and clay: the craft of Helen and Peter Laycock. Still based at Dunmoochin in the 1974 potters' directory, by 1981, Peter had left his wife and moved to Nimbin in northern NSW, then Bingil Bay and Dunk Island, in far North Queensland. Returning to VIctoria in 1991, he based himself in Castlemaine, where he lived and worked until his death in 2009. His works are incised 'Laycock' or 'Peter Laycock'. From 1962, he also used an impressed 'PL' seal.

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