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

I remember getting a magazine (national geographic or something similar) back when I was very young and they had small pieces of pyrite, rose quartz, etc that came with them. I think that was what sparked my passion. Shortly afterwards we moved away to Malaysia where the market for minerals is mainly for carved stones, not really up my alley. Coming back to Australia my dad and I happened upon the North Brisbane Lapidary Club show driving along a main road and said we would be back the following day. I remember buying a dyed agate, a rhomb of calcite, and a Knightia fossil (that subsequently split in two along its cleavage plane and gave me an extra fossil for free!). All told I’ve been seriously collecting for around seven years now but have had an interest in minerals for many more.

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

I didn’t initially have a focus on collecting anything in particular, buying things that I hadn’t seen before in a willy-nilly fashion. After reading an article on collections and collecting (on McDougall Minerals website) I had a good look at what I already had and noticed a large number of Namibian and Moroccan minerals. I then decided that I was going to focus on minerals from Africa with a particular focus on Namibia and Morocco. I’ve since developed a secondary focus on the Congo, South Africa, and Tanzania.

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

My job at the moment is as a gymnastics coach and the sport has been a large part of my life since I was seven. Although I don’t compete anymore I still enjoy training in the gym to stay fit (and also to show up my boys from time to time). Reading is another favourite hobby of mine and I read quite widely. History is without a doubt my favourite topic and I particularly love medieval history. I’ve recently gotten into rewilding, and have incorporated aspects of it into my gardening. I also volunteer at the state maritime museum and have a post graduate certificate in museum studies which I hope to put to use in the future.

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

I’ve been to Tucson three times now in 2017, 2019, and 2020. My favourite part of visiting Tucson is the sheer variety of things on display. To be able to pick through an entire show and find something amazing and then being able to do that for days on end is an experience that is simply awesome. I hope to get to some of the other major shows when Australian borders reopen.

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

In the future I’d love to see myself as a collector known for things that are a little off the beaten track. Species and associations that aren’t commonly seen in collections are the things I’ve come to love. Hopefully I’ll be able to fulfil those dreams and have an awesome collection in the future!

6. What was the moment you realized there was no going back, you are a collector?

I think when I finally went to Tucson was when I decided that mineral collecting was what I really wanted to be involved in, as both a hobby and hopefully one day in a museum as a job. I found some awesome pieces there and saved all the money I’d brought to buy rocks (I barely ate as a result and lost quite a few kilos in the days I was there, whoops).

7. How many species do you have in your collection and do you strive to add more?

I’ve currently got around 100 species represented in my collection and I’m always looking to add more aesthetic species to my collection. Collecting African minerals give me a huge scope in which to collect and I’m always striving to add unusual and aesthetic pieces into my collection.

Before my lecture “Wonderful Wulfenite” presented to the New York Mineralogical Club, Dec. 11 2019.

Me at 79 Mine - 200 level.

Me at the 79 Mine - 400 level, Gila County, Arizona, USA

Me and Micah Weese at the 79 mine, 400 level.

Me and Wyatt Busby at the Planet Mine with flats of malachite.

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

I would like to say I’ve been collecting minerals my whole life but I think the more honest answer is that I have been seriously collecting minerals for 5 years. I certainly have been interested in rocks and minerals since a young age. Like many others in this group I would always pick up little bits of rock while hiking with my parents as a young child. I have fond memories of visiting the Mining and Mineral Museum on class trips in elementary school and going to gem shops to buy little pieces of rocks. Things really ramped up for me at the Flagg Gem and Mineral Show in January 2017 where I joined the Mineralogical Society of Arizona. Over the next few years I would attend every meeting I could, absorbing all of the information I could from every lecture and making incredible friendships and connections that I’m sure will last a lifetime.

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

My two biggest focuses as a collector have been worldwide thumbnail minerals and peruvian minerals of any size. Peru was my first big focus. My mom was born in peru and I grew up speaking both spanish and english. With this great heritage connection, I certainly focused quite heavily on the peruvian specimens available at gem shops, or at markets in Peru itself. It wasn’t until joining the Mineralogical Society of Arizona that I learned about thumbnails. The club takes credit for thumbnails, claiming that their founder, Arthur Flagg, coined the term thumbnail. As to the validity of that claim, I have no evidence, but it is certainly true that many members of that club today are thumbnailers and they certainly encouraged me into becoming a thumbnail collector myself. Many members of MSA enter in thumbnail mineral competitions at TGMS and seeing everyones cases at TGMS 2017 led me to really start collecting thumbnails and ultimately enter my own thumbnail exhibit at TGMS 2018 and every subsequent tucson show.

3. What’s your favorite species? Why?

My all time favorite species has to be wulfenite. Beyond just it being a beautiful species with varied forms and colors, I have been very absorbed in wulfenite as an Arizona resident. Arizona has over 200 wulfenite localities and many of the places I have collected have been either primary wulfenite spots or have had associated wulfenite. Beyond that, I was involved in the “Wulfenite is Love” campaign to make wulfenite the state mineral of Arizona. As a part of that, I and some of the other MSA Junior members had the opportunity to go down to the Arizona State Capital and give special Jeff Scovil Wulfenite calendars to all the State Representatives in order to give them a visual idea of how amazing wulfenite, and in particular Arizona wulfenite, can be.

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 most of the Arizona mineral shows, especially those in Tucson. I’ve also gone to the New York Gem and Mineral show on quite a few occasions. My favorite part has to be the friendliness and connections formed at the shows. I have found myself on many occasions more excited for the people I will get to see at the shows than for even the minerals themselves. Year after year there is always people to catch up with and new people to meet. Some of the shows I’d like to attend include the Denver shows and the New Mexico Symposium as well as the European shows like Munich.

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

I collect on the field whenever I can! I would like to think I have become an adept field collector. I’ve collected all over the state of Arizona as well as venturing into Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Some of my best finds are going to be featured in the YMC section of the upcoming Mineralogical Record Field Collector’s supplement. Additionally, in 2020 I put in a self collected competitive exhibit at the Tucson Main Show, and will be putting in an updated exhibit woth another 2 years of specimens in the upcoming 2022 Tucson show.

6. If you could give any advice to someone new to the hobby, what would it be?

My greatest advice would be to start cataloging early. I know it is difficult to get started once you've acquired 100+ pieces and haven’t done anything yet, so get started as soon as possible. At the very least, write down somewhere the price and date of every specimen you buy as that is the easiest thing to forget. For those of you who have quite a few pieces, I have personally found it helpful to subdivide catalogging by category. In my collection I have subdivisions for each size category as well as a few other focuses. I did this purposely to divide the backlog up into smaller easy to manage sections. My philosophy on cataloging has been that if tomorrow I were to disappear, I want to ensure that no information is lost about my collection. It is quite a challenge, but having caught up has been incredibly rewarding.

7. If you could field collect at one locality, which would it be.

My dream place to collect has to be Huanzala Mine, Peru. I have mostly gotten bored of Huanzala pyrites, but I would absolutely have a blast actually collecting them by hand. Not to mention the other sulfides at Huanzala or even the weird other things like fluorite and barite. Honestly, its an absolute dream to just be able to collect ANYWHERE in Peru, even if it was just one piece.

Me with a Kazimir Malevich painting at The Art Institute of Chicago

My personal collection / display case

Me with one of my paintings from the exhibition

Me at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals

Me with my friend and mentor Jack Featherly at my exhibition 'Iceberg' at Holding Contemporary in Portland, OR

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

I’ve been collecting minerals for a little over 8 years now (I bought my first specimen in June 2014). I was initially introduced to mineral collecting while I was on a road trip through the Midwest and I stopped in Chicago to see a friend. They ended up bringing me to Dave’s Rock Shop since it was in their neighborhood and was a cool spot to check out. At the time I had been an abstract geometric painter for 5-6 years, now going on much longer, so I had spent a lot of time studying abstract painting theory and other artists in that field. When I entered the shop the first thing I saw was this large Navajún Pyrite with a perfect cube perched on top of the matrix. I was absolutely stunned to see something so flawlessly geometric that had formed completely naturally (the painting that first inspired me to become an artist was Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square so this specimen was particularly striking to me). As I continued through the shop I was amazed by the overlap between the art that I studied/made and the mineral specimens. I bought a few pieces from the shop, including my own smaller Navajún Pyrite, and returned home. Once back I researched rock shops nearby and found a store relatively close to my house. As luck would have it, one of the employees there was extremely knowledgeable in regards to different minerals, their formation, localities, all of the good stuff, and she was happy to share. I ended up visiting that store every chance I got, which was almost weekly, and picking her brain as much as possible. From there my interest has just continued to grow and now mineral collecting is a large part of my life.

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

My collection revolves heavily around aesthetics and provenance, unsurprisingly as these are two very prominent elements in the art world. I love a beautifully composed specimen and equally love a deep traceable history to a piece. I’m also a big bargain shopper and have never let a collection focus get in the way of a great deal. That said, for the past 1-2 years I’ve been leaning a bit more into collecting lead/iron bearing minerals. When I first started collecting I primarily collected Fluorite, it remains roughly 25% of my entire collection, but as my collection has grown I find it harder and harder to find a fluorite that is both impressive and within my means to afford. I also have a running rule that for any new specimen I buy I need to sell one from my collection, so I have to find a specimen that I like enough to replace something I already have which has guided my buying habits a lot as of late (unless one of those aforementioned great deals comes up of course, then I’ll break that rule in a heartbeat haha.)

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

Outside of mineral collecting my main passion is art making and art curation. I’ve been a practicing artist since 2009 and have managed 3 art galleries that specialized in showcasing underrepresented artists. I was also involved in an international curating project that exclusively worked with artists from Africa and the diaspora which I’ve just recently decided to move on from. Beyond my art practice, staring at my display case, and spending time with my partner, I’m a big plant person and have a lot of houseplants that I love to care for.

4. What’s your favorite species? Why?

My favorite species is Bournonite. I love the rarity of quality specimens and I find the history/formation of it very interesting as well. One of my favorite artists is Agnes Martin and thus I’m a sucker for some good horizontal lines and the cyclical twinning of Bournonite really does it for me aesthetically.

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

Personally, I would just love to grow my knowledge of basically anything regarding minerals. Coming from an art background, I do my best to understand the geological aspects behind minerals and their formation but I know I pale in comparison to the majority of collectors. In regards to my collection, I’d love to have a small but highly curated collection. I’m a city dweller at heart, despite growing up relatively rurally, so I’m destined for a future of small living spaces and easily moved Ikea display cases. I’m very inspired by the Roz and Norm Pellman collection which consisted of 500 specimens and they were all stunning. I’ve also always dreamed of curating a contemporary art exhibition that features mineral specimens or possibly having my own small art gallery/mineral museum space or something.

6. If you could give advice to someone new to the hobby, what would it be?

Coming in new to the hobby I have two points of advice. Firstly, to someone who is already decidedly dedicated to the hobby, I’d say less is more. Save up for those reach pieces the best you can. Once you get a dream specimen, the beauty of seeing it in your hands for the first time is unmatched. In the long run, you’re better off saving up to get pieces you’ll keep forever and they will accrue in value much quicker than mine run quality material if you do choose to resell them. But, to those who are new to collecting and not ready to make the leap (if such a definitive point exists), I would say don’t be intimidated and don’t worry about how nice/rare other peoples specimens are. What’s truly important with mineral collecting is how much a specimen matters to you and how you find happiness in it. Maybe it won’t stand out in the pantheon of that mineral species but that doesn’t matter if it makes you happy. This hobby, to me, is about enjoying all the different facets that minerals can bring to our lives and if that happens to be that, at this point in time, that mineral specimen made your day then that’s just as valid as someone who had the same excitement but maybe spent 10 fold what you did. Joy and passion are completely relative.

7. What fuels your enthusiasm for mineral collecting?

So much of my life revolves around aesthetics, personally and professionally, and I think it is a great reality check to see that the earth produces these amazing crystals without any help from us (not including a helpful cleaning and trimming of course). Much the same that so many painters throughout history have tried to capture the beauty of a flower using solely pigment, I think reflecting on the unreproducible beauty of nature is important to our appreciation of the world. I feel particularly privileged given my current collection to be able to sit in front of my display case and see such a diverse group of specimens that represent so many different geological conditions, countries, histories, laborious efforts of miners and my own personally associated memories with each piece as well. I think a pure joy in life is being able to be surrounded by beautiful and meaningful objects and crystal collecting has always and continues to contribute to that for me.

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

I have been really interested in fossils since middle school (my biology teacher was a geologist, she’s now my mentor and friend). She started bringing me with her to the field to find fossils and small things (nothing crazy, but i kept them all). I started collecting minerals at 15 when I watched the TV Show Prospectors (yeah, I know, not very original). I was already passionate by nature but not really into mineralogy. And I guess that it’s the research of the perfect aesthetics what really motivated me.

But my collection became way more serious when I turned 18 (because I could drive!). Moreover, at the geology faculty at uni, with 4 friends, we started to prospect a lot together and it became really really serious (and we have found some crazy fluorites). We’ll expose as dealers for the first time next week at the Lyon’s show.

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

I have always collected French minerals and more especially French Fluorite. I also really enjoy American classics (like Illinois and Tennessee fluorite, Wulfenite from Arizona and minerals from Ojuela Mine in Mexico). My focus didn’t really change through time.

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

I’m studying geology so it’s a major part of my life at the moment. But I also often do horseback riding (I have several horses), spear fishing, caving, climbing…. I’m really into sports. Also, I'm part of several student associations on the campus I'm studying so it takes a lot of time.

4. What’s your favorite species? Why?

I really love Fluorite because of the diversity of shapes, colors, associations and truncations. Also because it is a mineral frequently encountered on the field (and especially in France, we have more than 1240 occurrences). This mineral is really interesting to dig because it’s very fragile and brittle. So it can make you cry, jump out of joy or both at the same time !

5. 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?

Yes, I have already been to a lot of mineral shows. The advantage is that France is a « small » country and it’s very easy to move in it. So I was able to participate in several shows like Lyon, Paris, Châtel-Guyon, ect. And a lot more are planned like Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines.

Also, I'm organizing the Beauvais’ mineral show in March 2022. It’s a great opportunity for me to manage a project like that.

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

I’m everything but not a « stay-at-home » collector! A very big part of my collection is self collected (i would say 85 to 90%). It’s a bit repetitive because I might have several hundreds of similar specimens from the same area (or pocket). With my team, we mainly dig in Auvergne because there’s some very productives mines (even if they’re supposed to be closed !). I also travelled to a lot of localities in France (like Valzergues, Le Franciman etc..., always looking for fluorite).

7. If you could give any advice to someone new to the hobby, what would it be?

It’s the geologist who’ll speak there haha ! But just go on the field, observe, learn and draw. Nature is the best teacher. That’s how geology has to be learned (and every passion linked to nature too), not in labs. I mean, you can learn in labs but you won’t be a good field geologist.

Also, read a lot, that’s how you get knowledge; go to mineral shows to learn about minerals and speak with dealers, they have important knowledge to share too.

If I had to summarize geology and mineralogy, it would be really easy : friends, sharing, rocks and field trips !

The Piece That Got Away

fluorite + pyrrhotite specimen

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

I might be one of the least conventional collectors in YMC… my dad started collecting when I was away at college, and I’d randomly get pictures of these “rocks” and I totally didn’t get it. I moved to Shanghai for a few years after college, and during one of my trips back to the states, the family went on a vacation and I briefly met Rob Lavinsky in the airport when he flew in to drop off a rock and then fly straight back to Dallas. It seemed pretty bizarre at the time!

Rob was looking to amp up his China travels and my dad set up a meet up for us in Shanghai. I’m sure Rob didn’t want to deal with his client’s kid, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend a day with my dad’s “rock guy” but we got along well and I helped him with a few expos he did in China over the next year or two. In 2012, I moved back to the states and took a “regular” job in finance and pretty much hated the environment, and Rob kept asking me to help with shows (Tucson, then wanted me to go to China for 10 days…) and I told him I couldn’t take a 10 day vaca from my “real” job but I’d quit if he’d hire me. And here I am, 8+ years later, still with The Arkenstone.

Ok now to the real question… how long have I been collecting? Well. I have a secret stash of things in the office I love and don’t want to sell, so they just… hide with me for a little bit, until something new and shiny and pretty comes along I like more. I only have 2 specimens in my “permanent collection,” and the others are mostly on a rotating “loan” from The Arkenstone inventory. My little girl, Hannah, has a larger collection than I do, thanks to the generosity of multiple mineral friends, who gifted her several rare locality golds, cut gems, and even an imperial topaz (her birthstone) pendant.

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

I’m not sure I have much of a true focus. With 20,000 sq ft of minerals floating around here, I’m always finding something new and cute I feel compelled to keep tucked away for a few months. I tend to stick with miniatures… maybe that’s because they’re easier to hide away without drawing attention.

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

My little 9-month old peanut is keeping me busy busy busy! Most of my “free time” these days involves keeping up with Hannah’s insatiable appetite for food and new activities while keeping Frozen songs on repeat and also online stalking all of the cute mineral and gem related baby clothes.

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?

Working at The Arkenstone has given me the chance to visit TONS of shows. I’ve explored multiple in China (Shanghai, Chenzhou, Changsha, Hong Kong) several in Europe (Munich several times, SMAM) and of course, Tucson & Denver.

The Chinese shows provide the funniest and wildest stories. One year I went underground with Jack Schmitt, who literally walked on the moon, and I love the memory of going underground with someone who went so far above it. Rob and I had a client open a closed portion of the Great Wall for us to hike, and one year we had clients host a weird private modelling show for us during dinner? I don’t know. Its a better story in person. Ask me about it sometime. It involved a lot of baijiu (like the Japanese version of sake, but stronger and more pungent) and a very bad hangover the next day.

Munich is my favorite for the culture. I put on so much bread and beer weight at that show in such a short period of time while I fill up on pretzels and pints and heavy, delicious Bavarian food. I love that the show feels relaxed and so well organized!

And Tucson. What is there to say? Tucson is by far the most energetic of the shows for me. There’s so much to see and do, and so many people to visit!

5. If you could give any advice to someone new to the hobby, what would it be?

LEARN FIRST! It can be really tempting to jump in the hobby and treat it like Pokemon - “Gotta catch em all!” but I’ve seen so many collectors get SO many things at the beginning of their discovery of minerals, and when they start focusing in on what they really love, they realize they have a pile of things they don’t care about and 2-3 specimens they can’t live without.

That, and look for dealers who will help you stretch to the next level. Sometimes that means working out trades, or payment plans, or trying for discounts. My time with the company has taught me that people usually treasure the pieces that hurt a little bit to pay for much more than the ones they bought on a whim.

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

I’ve been super lucky to be surrounded by a fantastic group of humans in the industry. My dad could retire, but he literally keeps working so he feels ok buying the next rock he falls in love with, and I think that passion is pretty amazing. While they collect as a couple, my mom is definitely more of the prospecting type than the “pretty on a shelf” type. She goes gold prospecting with a bunch of the “old guard” out in California and has all of her bins of tools, including multiple metal detectors, chemical kits, water guns, etc. We both love puzzles, and I think this is like one big outdoor puzzle for her to try to solve. And don’t even get me started on Rob, who types in his own language that only a few of us can fully decipher, mainly because he’s so busy loving the next rock that comes in the door to bother proofreading anything he types. He’s like the little engine that could, just chugging away at project after project, chasing the next big thing he can share with the rest of us.

7. What’s the “specimen that got away”?

I did a dumb thing. There’s this fluorite+pyrrhotite specimen that I just loved (included in my spotlight pics!) I sent Tom Campbell, part of the Arkenstone team, a video I took of it because I liked the piece. He then went to Rob and bought it. So now… it lives 40 feet away from me… in the case in his office. I told him he needs to leave it to me in his will.