Fordite

My husband is a "car nut". He works in the automotive industry and his passion is restoring old muscle cars. I cannot even begin to tell you how many different cars have come through our garage - Camaros, a Dodge Challenger, a Ford Torino, some old AMC's (if people remember AMC)... right now he is working on a Chevelle. Needless to say, our summers are filled with car shows on the weekends. Everything from the local drive-in to taking day trips to Detroit. I enjoy it too, mostly because they just don't make cars (or anything) like they used to!

I've been on the vintage/upcycling kick in the jewelry department lately, as many others have too, so imagine my excitement when Jon brought to my attention something in one of his magazines. A material called Fordite - here is the definition:

Fordite, also known as Detroit agate, is old automobile paint which has hardened sufficiently to be cut and polished. It was formed from the build up of layers of enamel paint slag on tracks and skids on which cars were hand spray-painted (a now automated process), which have been baked numerous times. In recent times the material has been recycled as eco friendly jewelry.

As you can see in the pic below, the cabs that come out of this material are amazing! They are becoming rare though, since the lines now have processes that do not produce this waste anymore. I am certainly on the lookout to snatch some up at a reasonable price to work into some designs! It's so thrilling to be able to combine both my jewelry passion with something my husband is passionate about!