My first ‘serious’ specimen

I just put the mask down temporarily for this photo. I swear I wore mask and kept the right distance from others the whole time!

1. How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?

I have been collecting for around two years now. It started in 2018, when I was on a trip traveling to different states in the US. I visited Harvard Museum of Natural History because at that time I was quite into fossils and taxidermy. Then I saw their mineral collection, and it have forever changed my world. Before that, the only mineral I knew at that point was quartz, which I was not interested in at all due to its overly popularity and lack of originality. I did not know that there were other types of minerals out there, and how beautiful they can be. I still remember, the specimens at Harvard Museum that impressed me the most were the wulfenite from Sonora, Mexico, and  the Flor de Liz, a specimen of red elbaite on a magnificent bed of cleavelandite. I was especially mesmerized by flower-like minerals such as cleavelandite, wulfenite, magnesite, etc. After that, I looked up on eBay and actually found some specimens that fit both my budget and preferences. My first ‘serious’ specimen was a hemimorphite from Chihuahua, Mexico which I still keep and adore till this day. Also, I have started to understand and appreciate quartz a bit more, and even started a small collection of just doubly terminated ones.

2. What's the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?

I have no real focus in collecting minerals, although currently I am quite into building a collection of various types of thumbnail doubly terminated quartz specimens. Initially, I was really into tabular, rosette and flaky minerals such as calcite, barite or selenite and planning to focus on collecting any mineral specimens that resemble flowers. I still love and buy flower-like specimens from time to time, but as I have learned and become more familiar with other types of minerals, I have started to pay more attention to luster, conditions and compositions of the whole piece. I also prefer smaller specimens now, as I find it easier to appreciate and to take care of the specimens as they often have less damages, more decent compositions and are more affordable.

3. What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (hobbies, job, music taste, etc).

Outside of mineral collecting, I often spend time to cook and try new ingredients and cuisines. Before the pandemic, I often travel near and far for good food and restaurants that Yelp and YouTube foodies suggested. Now as things get complicated, I have been trying to cook more and  investing in better cookware, especially cast iron. I almost become a cast iron cookware collector, unfortunately (or fortunately?) I did not because cast iron stuffs are too heavy and often too large for my daily needs. I still have a cast iron pan and a 1.5 qt. dutch oven which I use almost every day, and thanks to them my skills and enthusiasm in cooking and eating have improved quite a lot. I even joined a cast iron cooking group on Facebook.

4. What's your favorite species? Why?

My favorite mineral would be calcite.  I actually have been into calcite even before I knew what “mineral collecting” was. Before knowing this hobby exist, I was a pearl collector. I spent more than a year studying about all types of pearls and even earned a certification from the Cultured Pearl  Association of America. Later on, when I was exposed to minerals and mineral collecting, the first species that I fell in love with was calcite, specifically those from China and Mexico. Calcite can be found everywhere, and yet it often has quite distinct forms and associations based on specific localities. I can never get bored of calcite.

5. Is there anyone who has inspired you in this field? Do you look up to the collection of someone in particular?

There is actually not a particular person who has inspired me to start collecting minerals. Instead, it was a museum. In 2018 during my traveling across the east coast of the United States, I spent a few days at Massachusetts and visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History. That was my first encounter with professional mineral collecting. The lighting, the detailed info labels, and especially the specimens there mesmerized me. My only idea about minerals at that time was just quartz and geodes, which I often bought for making jewelry. The experience of visiting a museum that focused on showcasing the raw beauty of minerals have  forever changed my perceptions. Mineral specimens can be artworks by themselves. Their natural forms, colors, and especially localities are all indispensable values that unfortunately, are often overlooked.

Even until now, after visiting and seeing some of the best of the best of mineral museums, galleries, and personal collections, I still look up to the Harvard Museum’s mineral exhibition. Aside from the memory of the first impressions, what I like most about it are the sizes of the specimens and how the museum showcased them. Comparing to other larger museums and galleries, Harvard’s mineral collection looked like a more possible goal for personal collectors to achieve as there were various sizes and types of mineral specimens on display, not just large and rocket expensive ones. If one day I can have a large space to showcase my mineral collection, I would definitely use Harvard Museum as reference.

6. How do you see the future of the mineral hobby?

I think the future of collecting mineral is quite promising but can be a bit trippy if there is a lack of reliable leaders to lead the way and limited resources for young collectors to learn, attain and share the passions. In Asia, specifically my country Vietnam, there are more and more people become fascinated in ‘growing’ minerals, and there have been a steady growth in number of veteran gem and stone artworks collectors starting to pay more attention to natural terminated specimens and endorse local mineral finds. However, there are still limitations in access and shipping options for many local collectors to attain global minerals, and there is definitely a lack of resource and reliable organizations that can help identify unknown new-find minerals. Therefore, if in the future there are more reliable organizations for learning and identifying minerals, the hobby of mineral collecting will definitely thrive. If not, mineral collecting will be no more than just a fancy phase for kids and the wealthy.

7. Have you been to any shows? If so, what's your favorite part of them? If not, are there any particular ones you would want to experience one day?

I have been to a few shows: Tucson, New York, New Jersey, and Springfield. There were so many things to do, see and buy, which makes it quite hard for me to pick a favorite part. However, if I have to be honest, I love the thrill of finding great specimens with great prices. I love going through stacks and stacks of boxes of miniature and thumbnail specimens. I love choosing ‘the right ones’ among a table full of minerals. I love getting a good deal from buying multiple specimens at once. And I love getting to know dealers and sellers who share similar tastes in minerals and always stock up the latest finds.

1. How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?

I am a French mineral collector, this passion started two years and a half ago now. After high school I started studying in a geosciences engineering school and I followed courses about general geology but also at the same time paleontology and mineralogy courses which interested me a lot. Moreover, the fact of having field courses everywhere in France helps the passion to start. Indeed, I love being outside discovering new things. Furthermore, in this school I made friends who transmit me this passion, both collecting and going on the field for prospection. This created the group of passionate students we are now.

2. What's the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?

The focus of my collection is minerals I find by myself on the field, which is in majority fluorites from Massif Central in France. I am mainly collecting European fluorites since the beginning, even if I have some from USA. More recently I started to focus more on French stuff. But I definitely prefer what I find on the field no matter on the species.

As most of you knows minerals from Alps mountains are among the most famous localities in the world (especially for the smoky quartz and pink/red fluorites) and I am more and more interested in those localities. I have the project to focus more on this part of Europe for the next few years. It’s a large area to have fun there and that will also be a new challenge for me.

3. What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (hobbies, job, music taste, etc).

I love doing sports, before my studies I played basketball and did horse riding in top level competition. And now I often play football with friends or doing sport to keep good physical condition. I also like to travel; discovering new places, lifestyles or landscapes is what makes me tick.

If I could take the opportunity of this spotlight to give an advice, that would be: Travel as much as you can, it doesn’t have to be on the other side of the world, just make new things.

4. Have you been to any shows? If so, what's your favorite part of them? If not, are there any particular ones you would want to experience one day?

I have been to many shows in France but because of Covid19 it has been difficult to visit them as much as I would have liked. But now mineral shows are restarting, and I suppose everyone with happy with that! My favorite part in mineral shows is to meet passionate people and talk with them about their experience.

As a mineral fan I would like one day travel to Tucson of course but we also have great mineral shows in Europe too! Next June I planned to go to Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines which is the biggest show in France.

To finish on this part, last year we started something new with my team (ACKAM) at Lyon’s gem show, we had our first exhibition, it was a great experience! This year we are part of the organization for Beauvais mineral show (end of March 2022). We had our own stand and for the first time we presented our collection in the “prestigious exhibition” whose theme is “Minerals from Auvergne” we are proud of this!

5. Are you a stay-at-home collector or do you collect on the field too?

As I told before I am a field collector and that’s what I prefer, for me the feeling of finding a perfect, intact piece after hours, days of work is the best award I can have from mineralogy, and this is also this feeling which pushes me to go back on the field as much as possible. My favorites areas to collect at the moment are in Auvergne region, more precisely in Labarre mine area, the place where I went most of the time and I know well. But this is not the only place where I go. I also like going in Tarn department, a well-known place in French mineralogy thanks to Le Burc mine area (famous blue fluorites). During this last two years I visited a lot of mines and quarries all around France.

6. What's your favorite locality? Why?

Labarre mine! By Far!

This is a place where I have a lot of souvenirs with my friends, we had a lot of good time there and great discoveries. This small mine is the place where this mineralogy adventure started more than two years ago, and I have a lot of great souvenirs there. From a discovery perspective this mine is the place where I found my first crystallized pocket in 2020 (I’ll attach a picture of one of the specimens). And then many others followed.

Unfortunately, I made the decision not to return underground at Labarre now because the working area became too dangerous the last few months.

7. Is there a piece/pieces in your collection you’ll never let go off, which and why?

Yes! They are blue and tricolor fluorite from Labarre mine (not so surprising) both found in summer 2020 (I also added a picture of these pieces). I would like to keep them forever because they represent a lot for me, it’s first good memories of exploration and nice rewards of hard work. I hope that in the future I will find other specimens which will provide me similar feelings.

1. How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?

I’ve technically been collecting for around 10 years since I was 7 years old. It’s only been around a year and a half since I switched to actual collecting and away from the aura quartz, pyrite chunk, quartz geode phase. My passion first started when I was 7 years old when my dad gave me a chunk of lapis lazuli with pyrite in matrix from his hometown of San Juan, Argentina.

2. What's the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?

The focus of my collection nowadays is to collect very aesthetic miniature specimens with isolated crystals from around the world. I used to just focus on collecting every species possible, so I mainly just cared about size and not aesthetics or appearance but as I grew as a collector then that all changed.

3. What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (Hobbies, job, music taste, etc).

I do karate, ski, work at a mineral store, and hike as my hobbies and work.

4. What's your favorite species? Why?

My absolute favourite species has to be pyromorphite. I love pyromorphite mainly because of the vibrant green colours (green is my favourite colour) and because of the unique crystal structure. I’m mainly a fan of specimens from Daoping and only the really nice ones from Les Farges.

5. What is your favorite/dream specimen outside of your collection? Why?

My dream specimen to own would be a nice miniature sized Autunite from China. A nice aesthetic specimen needs to explanation as to why it’s desirable due to the insane colour and formation.

6. What fuels your enthusiasm for mineral collecting?

Being on the hunt to find nicer and nicer specimens of things I do and don’t own mainly.

7. How many specimens do you have in your collection and do you have any bar set of how many you'd want to own?

I currently only have about 12 specimens as it’s hard for me to find things I really like. I’d like to eventually own around 100 specimens to finally be able to be happy with my collection. Even then pieces will be coming and going as I find better and better pieces.

1. How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?

I’ve actually been collecting, more or less, my entire life but in completely different ways throughout. When I was around 6 I went on a big family holiday to Lands End in Cornwall, England. I decided two things on that trip; first, my favourite colour, which was the ocean blue of the water as we made our way from Lands End to the Isle of Scilly on a ferry (I wasn’t sea sick!). The second was that I loved rocks. I remember being mesmerised by a sea of colourful rocks on the beach - greens, reds, oranges, blues – and completely falling in love. Now I have some understanding of geology, I’m not entirely sure blue rocks were just chilling on a sandy Cornwall beach, but I certainly plan to go back soon to find out! I’ve been collecting ever since then. As a teenager I subscribed to a rock magazine that gave you a different specimen with each issue. As I got older I would collect in a more ad hoc way, grabbing a new specimen whenever I was near a rock shop. Now I’m in my late twenties (and thanks to some disposable income!) it’s developed into a more systematic (and obsessive) hobby where I’m trying to understand science, history and art through mineralogy.

2. What’s the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?

At the moment I exclusively collect English fluorite and other English minerals in their association with fluorite. In the past I’ve collected anything that’s looked nice, from rocks and minerals to fossils. But I think there’s something quite magical about a single mineral species that shows up in so many unique ways on what is, let’s be honest, such a tiny island. Fluorite from Cornwall can display such wildly different crystal formation, colours and habits than, say, Fluorite from the North Pennines. There is so much that I’m discovering about the history of these little pieces. For example, when the lead markets crashed in the 1800s destitute miners from English lead mines (where a lot of my fluorite specimens came from) migrated to the Americas, New Zealand and Australia. It just so happens I’m writing a book about the history of British colonies in this exact period and I find it fascinating how minerals can represent and connect different points in history in this way. This is why I’m huge on provenance; I very much want to know the micro and macro histories behind each piece.

3. What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (hobbies, job, music taste, etc).

I work in Learning and Development and my other passion, aside from minerals, is politics. I really enjoy keeping these two worlds separate, and love having a part of my life that feels much more magical, relaxed and uplifting than the grimness of the real world. But it is fascinating how mineral history also draws you into political history. Just off the top of my head, migration from the crash of the lead market, the industrial revolution (which was powered by local coal, lead and iron mining) and the destruction of the coal industry in the 80s – all of these questions lead you to some quite fundamental moments in English political history.

4. Where do you see yourself as a collector in 5,10 or 20 years?

I would love to open up my home to local children interested in geology. I have always lived in big cities and know that where I’ve grown up children don’t often get the opportunity to discover the joy of minerals on their doorstep. But first this would require a slightly bigger home, better display furniture and a bigger collection so it’s some time away!

5. What is your favorite/dream specimen outside of your collection? Why?

Rotherhope Fell is one of the English localities that really encapsulates the unity of art, history and science in mineral collecting. It produced some of the most outstandingly beautiful fluorite specimens England has produced – some of which I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in the Natural History Museum of London. It was a locality frequented by collecting giants such as Sir Arthur Russell - many of the major pieces out there came from his collection. I haven’t yet found a good specimen from this locality for myself, and it’s so rare that I might not ever, but the hunt for one keeps the passion going!

6. What’s your favorite locality? Why?

At the moment it’s a toss-up between Heights Mine/Quarry and Florence Mine. Although these mines produced quite different fluorite specimens, I love them both for similar reasons. Heights produced a staggering colour spectrum of fluorite: greens, blues, turquoise, greys, purples, colourless, even yellows. Some have stunning day light fluorescence and zoning. Heights also produced lovely combinations with galena, quartz and calcium carbonate minerals. Florence Mine produced fewer colours but is famous for the Cumbrian blues which varied from pale sky blue to electric sea blue. They came with an incredible array of mineral combinations: kidney ore, specularite, baryte, quartz, Eisenkisel, smokies, calcite, aragonite, dolomite and it’s common for pieces to have 3, 4 or 5 minerals on one specimen!

7. If you could change anything regarding this hobby, what would that be?

I do feel uneasy about how expensive the hobby is becoming. I’m lucky to be able to collect decent quality specimens but if I had my way I’d want to ensure the hobby was not gate kept by wealth! This is one of the reasons why communities like this are great, where we can share the joy without barriers.

1. How many years have you been collecting and what started your passion?

My passion wast started when I was a small kid, probably around 5 years old. My grandmother lived in a mineralogically rich area, and she was cutting gems full time. So she took me to local shows and places where we could collect. Then, for many years, my “collection” stayed in a box. At the beginning of the last year, I returned from erasmus in slovenia and after being used to love with very few things (when you travel you can not move tons of stuff around) I started cleaning my room and throwing stuff away. You guessed it, I found my old “collection” and started selling the minerals, because why would I do with rocks in my room. I joined some groups, became a friend with some people and in a few weeks my passion was sparked again and I started collecting again, so a short answer to this question would be something around a year. Do I regret selling part of my childhood? Well no, because wanting to sell it got me here, and I am thankful for that.

2. What's the focus of your collection and has that changed through time? Why?

Main focus of my collections is to collect minerals from localities I visited or at least from countries I traveled. I like to know the context of the mineral, where it came from, how people live there and how nature there looks like. Second focus is the size, on display I have only small miniatures, and in the future I’d like to go even smaller, ideally w35 x l35 x h65mm. I just love to look at a display full of one size minerals. Then I have smaller or larger minerals that are unique or have sentimental value, for example self collected.
3. What do you like to do outside of mineral collecting? (hobbies, job, music taste, etc).

Outside of mineral collecting I’m an arts and architecture student, photographer and traveler. I also love reading, hiking, skiing, and learning new things.

4. What's your favorite species? Why?

Favorite species is a very tough question, but I want to try to answer it. Fluorite and quartz are the ones I’m thinking about, and my preference changes every month probably. Right now I’d pick quartz, but also for fluorite the reasons are a bit similar. It just fascinates me how such a simple mineral with a simple formula can form so many habits and types of crystalization. Inclusions and diferent conditions they grew in can make quartz so interesting and make it look a thousand different ways. So, my favorite piece might be a combo of these two, either a french smoky with pink fluorite or panasqueira’s clear quartz with a purple fluorite.

5. Are you a stay-at-home collector or do you collect on the field too?

I buy most of my specimens (only a few of them in my collection are self collected), but I try to travel every year at least once to collect and buy minerals. Last summer I was in Greece, and next year I’d like to take a few trips to Swiss Alps and US, I already started planning these but we will see how the situation with corona will turn up.

6. What specific aspect of the hobby would you like to learn more about?

I think that I know a something about compositions, aesthetics etc. (we learn that in school + I work with that in photography), but I struggle with the scientific aspect of this hobby. So, that is my answer, I’d like to get a few books on how minerals were formed, what causes all the colors, shapes and textures and different scientific aspects.

7. Do you get any inspiration from minerals? How?

For me, minerals are like sculptures, just not man made. And I think about architecture like about making sculptures, just with added functions. This means that in minerals I look for forms and compositions, that I can get inspiration for making my own designs in architecture. The same goes with photography, but instead of making the space, you capture it in frames.