A unique American material, Fordite – also known as Motor Agate – is not in fact a colourful gemstone, but the byproduct of a now extinct manufacturing process. The founding of the Ford Motor Company in 1903 once gave Detroit the status of the automotive capital of the world – the city is still known as 'Motor City' today, despite the sad decline of the industry there. Prior to the 1980's cars were spray-painted by hand, and the oversprayed paint, dripping off the panels, gradually began to build up in layers. These 'run off' layers were baked many times over in the ovens that the car bodies went into during the curing process. Eventually these built up layers of excess paint had gotten so thick they had become an obstructive nuisance, and would need to be removed – the story goes that some savvy auto workers with an eye for beauty recognised that this remarkable material - beautifully patterned like psychedelic agate - was worth salvaging and recycling. They were right! It wasn't long before 'gem hunters' started showing up to factories, helpfully offering to remove the paint in order to craft unique and highly desirable jewellery items – now a precious piece of Michigan's history. Due to modern painting methods taking over, the Fordite 'mines' are exhausted as the material is no longer being created, so get some whilst you still can!
