The number of collectors joining Earthwonders continues to grow! We've got a ton of new features we're excited to share.
We support five languages! Just select the language you prefer from English, French, German, Japanese or Chinese. Additionally, our Wiki is translated automatically, every night, into those languages so that we can provide the entire global community of collectors the best information.
If you haven't seen the https://earthwonders.com/wiki yet head over and check it out. You can contribute to the wiki and edit any page easily just like wikipedia. We are encouraging users to help contribute and your profile gets more points when you make contributions, putting you more to the top of the collectors page.
https://earthwonders.com/collectors/popular — Fabian Wildfang is currently in the lead! Collectors get points based on how many likes and comments other users give to their specimens as well as how many contributions the users make to the site.
We love pulling in data from many sources and combining it to make the worlds most accessible mineral crystal specimen database. Recently Kevin Brown has a feature in The Mineralogical Record — Kevin Brown Issue (Go purchase it!) and now you can also see his collection https://earthwonders.com/kevinb, and many others on Earthwonders.com
If you enjoy seeing great specimens on earthwonders.com, please help us contribute to the database. You can add items you have photos of to the database by pressing the big "+" button then selecting "Upload to Database".
Maybe you're a collector of a specific locality or species — by contributing, you could help build out the definitive database for others to enjoy and learn from.
Our long-term vision is ambitious yet straightforward: collectors should be able to find every notable specimen in the world on EarthWonders. Without a shared resource, every collector is forced to build a private database from scratch over years, sometimes decades. That is one of the biggest barriers facing new collectors today. The information exists, but it is too hard to access. If you have photos, videos, or records, contributing them helps preserve knowledge and makes the hobby more welcoming for the next generation.
If you have a large archive and want help with bulk uploading, please contact us. We would be very happy to help.
Earthwonders.com has its own messaging system, just like you're familiar with on sites like facebook.com and instagram. This way you can easily send other collectors or dealers comments, offers, questions about specimens, etc.
In other exciting news, we have recently added an Events Section to the site.
You can now add information about upcoming events you know about, see which other collectors are planning to attend, and connect directly through EarthWonders messaging. We hope that this makes it easier for collectors to meet in person, reconnect at shows, and make new friends through the hobby.
A few upcoming shows are already on our radar: Chenzhou and Nanjing in China, followed by Tokyo in Japan.
Are you going to any of them?
We recently published "Pederneira: One Mine, Many Pocket Personalities," a piece on a mine that many collectors find endlessly interesting.
It looks at why collectors do not stop at "Pederneira" alone, but pay attention to the pocket, the crystal habit, the color logic, and the reconstruction history behind a piece. That is really what makes the mine so rewarding: one pocket can be instantly distinguishable from the next, and learning those differences is part of the pleasure of collecting it.
Prada has recently been posting rough gemstones alongside their polished counterparts, using the transformation itself to emphasize provenance, authenticity, and traceability.
That is genuinely encouraging for the collector community because it highlights what collectors care about most: the story behind the piece. When a major brand shows the mineral in its natural state and connects it to the finished jewel, it affirms that locality, documentation, and history matter, not just the final look.
If you have specimens, locality information, research, or stories that could help others discover the world of minerals, we would be very happy to hear from you. Reach out to the team, info@earthwonders.com
Until next time, friends!
Amethyst
Quartz
Fluorite
Tourmaline
Malachite
Azurite
Rhodochrosite
