A woman who has a collection of 1,000 porcelain dolls says the hobby was born from heartbreak.
Lynn Emdin keeps her beloved figures, which were rescued from second-hand websites and lovingly restored, in a large shed in her garden.
The mum-of-four spends hours giving them a full MOT, dressing them in custom-made clothes and even spraying them with perfume.
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Lynn, who also works for her family’s auto parts and accessories business, says the hobby – and her ‘She Shed’ – has become a safe haven.
The passion first began 20 years ago when family friend Michael Tolmay gave her a porcelain doll called Rose for her birthday.
Two months later, he tragically died in a motorcycle accident, aged just 21 years old.
“Michael was best friends with my sons and like one of my own,” she told What’s The Jam.
“Every time I look at Rose I remember Michael.
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“From then on my love for porcelain dolls grew and I collected them wherever I could.”
Ever since, the 59-year-old has rescued dolls from Facebook Marketplace, among other buying and selling communities.
She said: “I’m a mother of four sons and sometimes I think I started the collection because I didn’t have daughters.
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“I’ve driven all over to pick them up and each one comes with its own story.”
The mum, from Vereeniging, South Africa, says her sons, Juan-Pierre, 40, Collin, 39, Sheldon, 28, and Ashton, 27, roll their eyes at her growing collection.
She said: “They’ve already told me I need to strike a match and burn everything in my shed on the day I leave this Earth.”
But her husband Rick, 65, is fully supportive.
He said: “Just this weekend she got two more.
“They were very dirty and like with every doll Lynn gets, she bathes, shampoos and cares for the little ones until they shine.”
Lynn said: “Rick will drive with me to pick up the dolls – he’s my biggest supporter.
“It just breaks my heart to see the dolls looking so neglected.
“Some of them even had bugs in their hair when I got them.
“I clean them up nicely and dress them in clothes my sister, Laurelle, custom makes for me.
“And then when they’re clean, I spray them with perfume so they smell good and I talk to them and say, ‘Wow, look how clean you look now.'”
Lynn built her giant shed to store her treasure trove.
Each of her “babies” is wrapped in plastic to preserve its pristine appearance.
They are kept on specially-built shelves or carefully-packed in crates when she runs out of room.
Her vast collection includes dolls of all shapes and sizes.
There are even two porcelain nuns, dressed in habits and wearing sunglasses.
It appears that a love of dolls runs in the family, too.
Lynn’s sister-in-law, Annette Emdin, is the owner of Annie’s Dolls Hospital and Museum where the avid fan collects dolls, games, vintage toys and military collections.
She said: “I have a red-haired doll bedecked in a snow-white baptism dress.
“A woman contacted me and gave them to me.
“They’re wearing the baptism clothes that belonged to the woman’s children.”
The couple aren’t sure how much they have spent on the collection but say there isn’t big money in restored porcelain dolls unless they’re very rare.
Rick, a radio broadcaster, added: “We’ve paid at most £10 (R250) for doll Lynn really wanted.
“There are porcelain dolls imported from Taiwan and I once saw one in a museum valued at around £7,500 (R180,000).
“But you don’t find those dolls easily in South Africa.”
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