Fordite - rock or ?

Hello everyone!!!!

My name is Fordite . I am also called “Motor Agate”, "Detroit Agate" and possibly many more names.  I look like a rock but I am not a rock … atleast not in the normal definition anyway.  I have an interesting story behind my existence and would love to share that with you.

You see, I don’t have any minerals or metals - precious or otherwise in me.  I don’t have anything that a stone or rock is expected to have except for beautiful colors and patterns.  Who am I? Where do I come from?

Do you remember the cool cars from 1950s or 1960s or even before?  Those beautiful cars made by Ford?  If you don’t know what I am talking about, ask your parents.  I am sure they have a favorite from those years.  When they built cars in those days, they used to spray paint the cars by hand!  Every frame of every car

Spray painting is messy.  Some of the paint used to drip down on to the painting bays and tracks where the frames were painted on.  Over a period of time, more and more layers of paint kept dripping one top of another and getting hardened.  Some of them even got baked in the oven along with the car and got cured.

After a while, this hardened paint becomes an obstruction and had to be scraped out.  They figured out that the easiest way to get it out is by using a chisel.  And seems like some of the chiselers had very artistic views about this hardened coats of paint.  What the auto manufacturers considered being trash, these folks saw it as treasure.  Since it was cured so well, it was easy to cut and each piece looks like a psycadelic Agate.   And that Agate is ME!. 

One of the stories is that when other artists heard about my beautiful patterns, they started coming to the auto plant and offer to cut off the hardened rock and take.  Can you think of a better “RECYCLED ART”? 

It is thought that the paints in those days are mostly enamel so no need to worry about Lead but if someone is working with a rough slab of me, I would still recommend wearing a mask just to make sure.

I am a perfect example of how science of painting lead to beautiful art. 

Auto manufacturers don’t paint the cars in the same method anymore so no more Fordite or any other “ite” possible.  So, if you have one of us with you, enjoy the beautiful colors and patterns.