Collector Spotlight: Andrew Emerson Ryan

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

I have been collecting for a little over two years. I did not initially have a passion for minerals, as a child my biggest passion was biology, with a very strong specific interest in entomology. I did pick up rocks and found them fascinating when I was young, but what sparked joy in me most were very small animals. Insects, amphibians, reptiles. I would catch them and raise them, or release them. When I was young, I most wanted to become an entomologist. However, I did have a small rock and mineral collection in a box (in it were some things like pyrite, a trilobite fossil, native copper), a small side passion that my parents encouraged but never went anywhere. As I reached high school, my interest in pursuing entomology professionally dwindled, and I did not have a firm idea of what exactly I wanted to do professionally.

Fast forward to December 2017. I was working as a CNA and my wife was 8 months pregnant with our daughter Luna. I decided to try making a little extra money by selling things on the side, so I went looking on the local marketplace for electronics, jewelry, and the like to buy cheap and flip for a profit. Eventually I began focusing more on jewelry, and then that morphed into selling loose gemstones. I quickly became acquainted with the Facebook rock, gem and mineral community and through that, I met a very good friend and fellow YMC member Bahlach Abdul Qayyum, around May 2018. He is a mineral specimen dealer living in Pakistan, and though we sold different types of things, we found a lot of common ground and became great friends very quickly. Through him, I learned a lot about mineral collecting, mineral specimens, and prominently mineral collectors and dealers. He is extremely intelligent and knowledgeable and very willing to share his knowledge and passion. He inspired me to buy a couple cheap specimens that I didn't really know what to do with, so I just kept then in the top of my kitchen cabinet. Then in March of 2019, he invited me to this new group he was excited about called "Young Mineral Collectors". At the point when I joined, I only had 3 mineral specimens I had purchased on a whim, and did not really consider myself a collector. For the first few months, I felt like an imposter, someone who didn't belong. Someone who had joined a group of passionate hobbyists, but did not share the same passion. But over time I learned a lot by seeing other people post and talk about mineral specimens, and I began to become seriously interested after being exposed to the many cool mineral specimens that were out there and which were being shown in the group. I learned what I liked and what I didn't like by assessing how well I liked the specimens that other group members owned. Soon, I began to divert some funds from my gem selling business to spend on buying specimens, and the rest is history. Now I spend way too much on mineral specimens, but I enjoy it too much to stop. It's like having my own little museum inside my house.

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

Oh boy. So initially, I bought specimens on a whim, without really having an ideal of what I liked vs what I didn't like. I joined YMC with literally just three specimens in the top of my kitchen cabinet. Soon after joining, I saw a YMC member was selling a bunch of cheap specimens (some of them even for free!), and just to rapidly increase the size of my collection, I had him put together a parcel of 20 specimens or so, and he shipped them to me. My collection pentupled overnight! I examined all of them closely and gathered them all together, then took a nice picture with the specimens I already had. They were diverse and fairly colorful, but none of them really "spoke" to me. Soon after, I ended up purchasing a specimen I REALLY liked, a fantastic Stak Nala tourmaline with albite and muscovite. It had this central, main crystal prominently displayed in the front and oriented upright, with the rest of the minerals serving as background/accents to the impressive main crystal. With this specimen, I learned that I really love two things in minerals. 1: specimens with a prominent main crystal oriented upwards and 2: very aesthetic combos. I began buying specimens that had similar qualities, and over time, those preferences have matured and developed into more specific ideals.

1: Prominent, isolated single crystals on matrix that are well oriented and have a good balance/ratio of crystal to matrix size. Sometimes I accept clusters with a single prominent crystal more dominant than the others due to the aesthetic similarity (this can be the case when isolated crystals on matrix are impossible or rare to find in a species).

2: Nice combos that are (usually) mismatched in size, or which have different shapes/forms. These can be on or off matrix. In this circumstance, I prefer that the second mineral appears to be growing on top of the first one, rather than having the appearance of growing together. This is why I typically prefer that the crystals be mismatched in size, so one serves as a sort of "matrix" for the other one.

In addition, I also tend to really enjoy colorful/brightly colored specimens, especially with contrasting colors, shapes, textures, etc. Sometimes I buy very colorful specimens that do not match my main two collection focuses, just for the sake of how pleasing the color is to my eyes.

I almost exclusively collect thumbnails and miniatures. I have a limited budget and due to my preference for very high quality specimens with as little damage as possible, it made natural sense for me to focus on the smaller specimens. They are way more likely to fit into my budget, and also, I love small, cute specimens.

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

I have a few different hobbies. I enjoy running a lot. I have ran 5 marathons and 1 ultramarathon so far. Right now, I'm actually out of shape though, and I am working on getting back into shape so I can compete again. I still sell gemstones as a side business, and I spend a lot of time online hunting for deals on good gems so I can sell them to my client base. I love traveling, and I've been overseas to the Philippines four times (my wife is Filipino, so all of those timed were to visit her and her family), and I've explored as much as possible of each country I have had layovers in along the way (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan). I enjoy watching anime series as well, I watch easily a dozen episodes each week and binge through series very quickly. I still have a strong interest in reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, and nature in general. If I ever encounter them while I'm out and about or walking through the woods somewhere, I absolutely will catch them, admire them for a bit, and then release them. In the Philippines, I've caught countless geckos and tree lizards, as well as random insects. In fact, I caught a tomato hornworm caterpillar last fall while on a run and brought it home to keep in a jar. It pupated, and is still in that jar right now! Adults emerge in late June, so it should emerge fairly soon. When it does, I'll release it in some place away from the city. I enjoy hiking and trail running, climbing to the tops of mountains and rock climbing. I wish I lived closer to nature, because those are things that I enjoy so much.

4) What's your favorite species? Why?

My favorite species is benitoite. It has the rarest crystal habit (trigonal bipyramidal), and it is also a very rare specimen. It is also a gem mineral (I tend to be most attracted to gem minerals due to their potential for nice clarity), and it is also my favorite gemstone. It forms wonderful, contrasting color combos with black neptunite and white natrolite. It's a unique mineral in so many ways. And I love unique things.

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

My dream specimen is the "sushi plate" benitoite specimen in the collection of Dave Bunk. It is in my opinion, the world's best miniature specimen. And certainly it is my favorite. It's the right size for my collection, and every species is so perfectly displayed in it. It doesn't even really match my preferred aesthetic styles, but I make exceptions for specimens that are truly awesome.

6) What fuels your enthusiasm for mineral collecting?

I have a bit of a collector/hoarder mentality. I also am a bit addicted to the dopamine rush that comes with buying cool things. So every time I find some wondrous/magical little specimen that really makes me go "wow!", I have to have it. I am a lover of diversity as well, so the more I have, and the more diverse I have, the better. Being a part of YMC and seeing so many wonderful specimens owned by other people also fuels my passion. Not necessarily out of a competitive mindset, but more because I get inspired by what I've seen other people do, and the time, effort and love they have put into building their own collection. My collection is a product of my admiration for the beauty that nature produces, and I want my collection to reflect that as much as it clearly does in the collections of my friends in YMC.

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

I have a core group of specimens that I kind of mentally consider "the A list" in my head. These specimens are ones that I want to keep in my collection forever, and which I know I will never get tired of. My Stak Nala tourmaline of course, is at the top of that list. But I also have so many others, perhaps a third of my collection. They are not necessarily "top quality" in terms of rarity, value or even aesthetics. But they are specimens that are excellent to me in some way. And I know that I cannot get any better specimens for what they are to replace them with. I would include my Shigar Valley, Pakistan topaz, my Zagi Mountain, Pakistan rutile, my Zard Mountain, Pakistan anatase with chlorite included quartz, my Elk Creek, South Dakota baryte on calcite, my Smoky Hawk, Colorado smoky/amazonite, my Carlsbad, New Mexico halite in sylvite, my San Benito county, California neptunite on natrolite,  my Serifos Island, Greece hematite on andradite, my Tsumeb, Namibia calcite on goethite, gosh there are too many to list here. A lot of my favorite minerals seem to be either from Pakistan or the USA.