Mary Pancoast trained as an artist at the American Academy of Art, Chicago, then at the Academy of Fine Art, Rome, where she met Peter Petruccelli during his time there from 1965-1967. They married and together set up Petruccelli's Ceramics at Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria. In 1973, In an article featuring the pottery in Pottery Australia, 18/1 (1979), p.47, she had been working as a potter for seven years. In 1991, she exhibited in a Victorian Ceramic Group exhibition at the Meat Market Craft Centre. She retired from ceramics in 1996 and now paints and teaches painting. As well as using the Pettrucelli's and Stoney Creek Pottery impressed stamps for production work, she signed her own pieces with a painted 'Pancoast'.