Innocence of Childhood!	Heather, Kip n' MerryRose	Poppy, Willow n' Holly	Have We Met?	The Puppet Show
The Painted Chair	Nicole	Little Wren	A Delightful Pairing	Prince Loren of Periwinkle

I would like to introduce myself, and my dolls. My name is Maryanne Oldenburg. I have been an accomplished doll artist since 1971.  Born and raised in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, I now live about 20 miles west of town. I married my high school sweetheart, who has been and is the "wind beneath my wings". He understands my passion for designing and creating each new doll/figure. We have been blessed with four of the greatest kids, who have all worked at sometime or another, in this crazy doll business. We have also nine grandchildren who always help to keep me young at heart.

After years as a free lance commercial artist, I took a break with the birth of my youngest child and in 1967 I started building doll houses (eight in all) to appease and compensate my desire to be an interior decorator. After a few years my husband suggested I should create families to fill the houses. Experimenting with everything from felt, to wood, to paper-mache, in 1970 I stumbled onto the Polyform Products Co. and the first Sculpey, which only came in a gray color.  The last house I built with all the furniture, plus accessories, was a 1:12 version of "Tara". The four members of this 1820's family were created in that same polymer clay.

My dollhouses were soon put aside for this fabulous new clay and I began illustrating children's poems in 3-dimension, mostly ones written by Robert Louis Stevenson. In May 1973, my local county library asked if I would like to display my houses for a month, along with my first six new "Poem Tots" as I called them. With the publicity of a two page article in the local Sheboygan Press, the library called and told me they had some visitors from out of town who wanted to buy my "dolls". "What dolls?" I asked, I tried to explain that those were figures, not dolls, but they wanted them anyway! So began my plunge into the "doll world" with the sale of my first four dolls!  All of my one-of-a-kind dolls are created from polymer clay. My goal has always been to create dolls with expressive faces that will capture the sweetness and innocence of children.

From 1973 to 1989, I designed, produced and sold my dolls directly to collectors around the country. My "Poem Tots" continued until 1976 when a dear friend gave me a one week crash course in porcelain doll making, followed by a trial and error weekend of plaster mold making.

In 1990, I was fortunate to move with great success into the wholesale market with my porcelain dolls. My two daughters, Bambi and Kelly joined me in my new venture. My husband, Bob, and Kelly’s husband, Bob, also helped out on a part time basis.

That year we began attending Toy Fair and eventually IDEX. My daughters quit their jobs to work with me and we worked as a team for the next ten plus years. We produced close to 200 designs in editions of 50, 30 and 15 each. Eventually I came to really dislike the drudgery of production and yearned for the "creative" end of the business. So I am back once again, to my first love, creating one-of-a-kinds in polymer clay.

At this point in my life I try to balance my love for creating dolls, between my two companies. For one, Oldenburg Originals, I design and create my one-of-a-kind dolls in polymer clay. For the other, Oldenburg & Company LLC, I am President and Director of Creative Design. I design and create dolls for vinyl and resin production. I also design all the clothes, accessories and sewing patterns. My two girls are again working with me as part owners of this new company. Kelly is VP of Operations and handles all orders and shipping and Bambi is VP Comptroller and handles all of the company finances. We introduced our first three vinyl children in 2007, called the "Playmates of Willow's Way". In 2008, we added three more children to the group. In a short time we will also be introducing a series of jointed resin dolls.

I have created souvenir dolls for a number of UFDC Regional Conferences and was ODACA's Souvenir Artist in 2001 and most recently in 2008.   I've also created a souvenir doll for one of the 2008 UFDC Annual Convention events.

Children are my specialty, from newborns to pre-teens. I have been fortunate to have won hundreds of awards at UFDC, IDMA and at IDEX. Several of my dolls have received DOLLS Award of Excellence nominations.

Another one of my advantageous ventures has been teaching doll design and sculpting throughout the United States.  Besides traveling to teach at conventions, conferences and private studios, I also teach in my home studio several times a year, in a Bed and Breakfast atmosphere. I teach the basic sculpting skills along with anatomy and proportions. Students also learn wig making and costume design, as well as many other doll related subjects. I have done competitive judging in original creation categories and quite often  I lecture and demonstrate the art and process of doll making and design throughout the country. I love teaching, lecturing and demonstrating to promote this exciting world of dolls. Of course my favorite teaching subject is sculpting. My philosophy is, "To sculpt what you see, not what your brain thinks it knows".

I became an Artist Member of ODACA in 1980. I am also a member of the United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC); the Doll Study Club of Mid-Wisconsin, as well as an Artist/Patron of the National Institute of American Doll Artists (NIADA). This year 2008, I am celebrating over 37 years in the doll world!