Diane Bucki was born into a family of doll lovers. A resident of Illinois, she began studying dollmaking in 1996 and quickly captured her unmistakable lifelike look in baby and child dolls.

She tells us, "Creating a person from a ball of clay is more rewarding than anything I have ever done. My goal as an artist is realism. Someday I want to take a picture of someone's child and turn it into a doll that looks identical. We never seem to hold our children enough when they are small. They grow up too fast. Dolls are a way to capture that child forever."