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.

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.