Fordite Jewelry: A Beautiful Part of Detroit's Heritage

Have you heard of fordite jewelry? If not, you are really missing out! But we are here to give you the scoop about fordite jewelry including its history, how it’s made and why it’s so near and dear to us. It’s a great combination of Detroit history and fashion, which fits us just perfectly.

The Harper Girls wearing fordite jewelry

If you’ve been following us for a while, then you know that we are based in Detroit and both have ties to the automotive industry. It started with Dianne’s father/Jen’s grandfather who worked for over 40 years at General Motors in sales and marketing. Next was Dianne’s brother/Jen’s dad who also worked at GM and finally, Dianne worked at General Motors for 20 years in event marketing and advertising.

On Jen’s side, she has been working on the agency side of the automotive industry. First she worked for an agency supporting Chevrolet and now she works for an agency supporting Ford. She’s also in marketing. Oh, and her husband currently works at General Motors too.

What is Fordite Jewelry?

Fordite, also known as Detroit Agate, is a unique automotive enamel material that was a “by-product” of the old way of painting automobiles. That method was the hand spray-painting in automotive factories.

The paint would naturally be oversprayed in the paint bays and would gradually build up on the tracks and skids that the car frames were painted on. Over time, there was a build up of colorful paint layers. These layers were repeatedly hardened in the ovens that the car bodies went into to cure the paint.

After a while, the paint build-up would just become too much. It became too thick and heavy and would have to be removed. But is was so beautiful that the workers realized that the by-product was worth saving. It was super-cured, had a fun, psychedelic pattern, and could be cut and polished with relative ease.

Now to the bad news: the practice of hand spray painting cars is now obsolete and the new method leaves little or no overspray. So, fordite is becoming harder and harder to find. So if you find something you like, grab it while you can.

But we’ve also got good news. We’ve partnered with Anna Hudick of Inside My Locket to bring you some great Fordite jewelry and just in time to celebrate the city of Detroit’s 322nd birthday today, July 24th.

Inside My Locket Fordite Jewelry

Dianne and Anna crossed paths in a professional PR group and after several conversations realized that they had this Detroit connection in common. They decided to work together to share the beauty that is fordite jewelry. Here are some of Anna’s pieces that we borrowed to photograph and share with you. There are a few more styles on her website.

Keep in mind, because of the nature of Fordite and each piece being unique, each piece is one-of-a-kind. What does that mean? It means when they are gone, they are gone! There is only one of each piece.

So, enjoy looking through Anna’s collection below. She is also offering a “Christmas in July” sale and offering 10% off with the code HG10 at checkout. (This offer expires on Monday, July 31, 2023). We also wanted you to know that we do not make commission on these sales. We just wanted to showcase Anna’s beautiful work. It should be shared and celebrated.

With each piece of Anna’s Fordite jewelry sold, 20% of the sales price goes to a non-profit in the Southwest corner of Detroit called Garage Cultural. This organization gives back to its community through Art Education, Community Engagement and Artist Development. Visit GarageCultural.org to find out more about their amazing work.

Corvette Fordite Pendant, $425