If you aren’t familiar with Fordite, it isn't a natural gemstone at all—it’s actually decades of automotive paint layers that built up on the factory tracks back when cars were still painted by hand. This material has been hand-shaped into a cabochon stone. Each colorful line represents a completely different vintage car model passing through the assembly line!
Fordite, also known as Detroit Agate, is old automobile paint which has hardened sufficiently to be cut and polished. As the story goes, some crafty workers with an eye for beauty realized that this unique by-product was worth salvaging. It was super-cured, patterned like psychedelic agate, and could be cut and polished like stone. Sadly, the techniques that produced it years ago are no longer in common use. Cars are now painted by way of an electrostatic process that essentially magnetizes the enamels to the car bodies. This leaves little overspray. The old factory methods that created a bounty of this incredible material are long gone.