A pretty Dagenham Fordite Pendant, set onto a Sterling Silver bail, which is marked 925.

This particular cabachon of Fordite came from someone who actually worked at the Dagenham Ford Motor company, now no longer open, and was purchased by myself, already cut and polished and then the sterling silver fixed bail was applied.

Fordite, which is also known as Motor Agate, is a mandmade material comprising of mulitple layers of the enameled vehichle paint, which built up over years of application by hand spray painting vehicles, obviously a certain amount of paint overlaped where the vehicle ended, resulting in a deposit,being laid down, so fordite is effectively layered enamelled vehicle paint, or slag "rough". These layers were hardened and cured repeatedly in the ovens that the car bodies went into to cure the paint.

Large deposits built up and tended to get in the way, so were removed and some of the workers realised that this hardened enamel paint deposits, had an intrinsic beauty of their own, where upon they attempted to cut and polish them, to make decorative items, resulting in pieces like we have for sale here today.

As this process of hand spraying vehicles with enamel paint no longer occurs, fordite is no longer being created and is now a sought after material and will soon be depleted.

Approximate measurements: The pendant complete with fixed bail, measures approx 3.7cms in length and approx 1.3cms in width at its widest point, with an edge depth of approx 4mms.

The colours range from white, to gold, blue to red, with a touch of black too.