This is
probably going to be short, as there’s not a whole lot of information on the
topic. It had a very limited window of
production, and is gaining in popularity, making it rare, but it’s not really…
historical, or a thing that there’s been a lot written about. There are lots of pictures, so there will be a fair amount here too. Having grown up and lived most
of my life in metro-Detroit, the auto business is everywhere. This is another one where I’m not sure where
I first heard of Fordite, probably on some clickbait article with pretty
pictures, to be honest. But it’s
interesting.
Fordite is
a man-made “stone” created in car factories before the 1970s. It’s also called Detroit Agate, Motor Agate,
and paint rock. The agate moniker comes
because of the similarity in appearance to real agates. Before the 1970s, auto plants painted cars in
bays, by hand. The coats of paint would
be heated to harden the paint, and more layers would be added. Paint would build up in the tracks in the
ground, and would also be heated and hardened.
Some of the tracks had up to one hundred layers of paint in them. The paint would just build up until it became
too thick to work around, and then it would be removed.
James
Pease, an auto worker in 1967, “recalls contractors cleaning paint booths
during model changes” (1). An urban
legend has it that workers would just bring home pieces for their family
members. Cindy Dempsey, one of the first
people to make Fordite jewelry (more on that in a bit), recalled being shown
some of this layered paint in the 1970s.
“A family friend who worked for one of the Detroit automakers told her
that her vividly painted Pet Rocks … resembled pieces from the plant where he
worked. He brought a chunk and showed it
to her” (2). Cindy “used sandpaper to
showcase the paint lump’s colors, then topped the finished stone with
varnish. It became the prototype for her
later creations” (3).
In the late
1970s, the auto companies changed the way they painted cars. No longer was the process done by hand, and
the paint was different too. The paint
nowadays is electrostatically attached to the cars, and there is almost no
excess paint sprayed. Because of this,
there’s no buildup of paint on the floor or otherwise.
Fordite was
not unique to Detroit, and the name is misleading: all built up paint from old
car factories is called Fordite. Fordite
from Detroit generally has layers of a grey primer between the layers of
colorful paint. In Ohio, where a lot of
vans were produced, the colors are more earthy, though there are pops of colors
from the 1970s. In Great Britain, there are
more opaque, metallic, and translucent layers (4). Fordite can be dated by the colors in the
pieces: in the 40s there were more blacks and browns, giving way to lots of
brighter colors into the 60s. Fordite
collectors and experts can even tell which company or factory the sample came
from.
As
mentioned earlier, Cindy Dempsey was one of the first people to make Fordite
into jewelry. Now you can find quite a
number of sellers online and, presumably, in shops. (One website I found, in addition to selling
Fordite jewelry, sells jewelry from old bowling balls as well.) Original Fordite does contain lead, but
generally not in levels that are harmful, and not usually unless ingested. Modern jewelers can recreate Fordite because
of it being a finite resource, and so real Fordite is much more valuable. Fordite is popular for its nostalgia factor
and because it is a recycled material and so more eco-friendly.
So that’s
Fordite. Like I thought, a short
article, but pretty pictures! I’d love
to have something made of it, but at the prices it goes for, that’s probably a
bit of a long shot unless I save up.
Next week, back to something with a bit more substance!
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