Two BIG boat paint varieties of fordite!

Hey all! I've taken the largest two slices that I'm able to get of my Boat paint variety of fordite and made these two lovely pieces. This bead measures 70x25mm and has a low dome either side, measures 6mm thick and has a 2.5mm drill hole. The weight is a little over 57 carats. You may think I'm crazy to put a carat weight on this "faux gemstone" but the person who has listed the MOST of it on eBay puts a carat weight on ALL his fordite. I want people to be able to see that one can get something 25 times more substantial from me for the same price!

And 57 carats isn't very heavy, only a little over 11 grams or about 1/3 an ounce!

This large half round or half oval cabochon is from the same piece of boat paint variety of fordite. It is 52x21mm by 7mm with a nice low dome and flat polished back with a weight of 36 carats. This would look great bezel set into a pendant or brooch and could go with a lot of different colors and styles of jewlery. I like it in some ways better than the traditional automotive fordite. Since this is a marine paint it also cuts and shapes and polishes better than automotive fordite and it's stronger to boot! The only piece of rough I have left is now smaller than an egg in size.

Thanks for letting me share and have a great weekend!

New FORDITE cabs and beads!

Hi folks! It's been a bit of a crazy summer but I'm keeping going!

I have SOOOOO many things started and so few finished! Finally here are pics of the "Fordite" that I've been working on. I'm taking a break from stocking my Etsy store and I'm still putting the majority of things in my eBay store. I'm really frustrated with having two store fronts and not sure how to handle the on line marketing of my work. I fired my "Trading Assistant" who had been doing my photography and listing for 6 months because he was just making too many mistakes and not taking decent quality images, so I'm back to working alone and doing everything myself.

There are totally varying kinds and qualities of fordite out there. "Fordite" is the common name for the overspray from the paint booths of old car factories. It originally came from Ford factories but the name has come to mean any recycled paint overspray. In the 1980's manufacturers switched to electrostatic sprays so there was no overspray, so it's VERY hard to come by! Here are some fordite cabs that I'll be listing tomorrow. The middle and two small ones on the right are original stock and the two on the left are "unbaked" more contemporary fordite from an unknown source. The "original stock" which is stuff that I collected in the 70's certainly came from old car factories whereas there is some kind of more recent to contemporary fordite that is "unbaked" and not as hard, brittle, and shiny as the old stuff. The more recent stuff does seem to show up in much larger chunks so I can do a little bit more creative things with it. I never really had access to any pieces of the "Classic" stuff that was big enough or stable enough to make beads. Here is my last piece of big rough of the more contemporary fordite....and here are some beads that I made out of this material....

I already sold the two smaller ones to a collector in Britain but the two larger ones are in my eBay store. I am 95% certain that the major seller of "faceted" fordite on eBay is using this rough material. I know he's having his faceting done in the Far East as I talked to him in Tucson.

I still actually really, really like working with the even more rare "boat paintite" variety of fordite. This is overspray of marine quality paint and it's very strong and takes a great polish! Here are some images of my "boat paintite"....

I'll be taking most of my inventory of beads with me away to a show in the middle of this week but I'll try and leave the cabs up in my eBay store. I'll probably have to put my Etsy store on vacation settings so I don't sell anything twice while I'm away, so if something is calling to you, better jump on it! I'll post more next week when I get back from my show and vacation. Thanks for looking everyone!

NPR story on Symbolic Thought, Beads, & Evolution

Hey Folks! There was a really interesting story on NPR's "All Things Considered" today about symbolic thought that concludes with an explanation of how beads are the earliest examples of human symbolic thought, dating back 75,000+ years. I know that so many of us create our ornament with the intention of creating a symbolic thought, not just "another piece of ornament." At least that's the case for me with my lapidary work and stone beads that I make. I thought others in this forum might appreciate listening to or reading this story on the NPR website. Maybe it will push the evolution of your jewelry making up a notch or make you feel more connected to the human history of symbolic thought....

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129082962&sc=fb&cc=fp