Recycled jewellery from reclaimed paint and resin

​I am constantly looking for ways to reuse waste materials.

No rubbish leaves my studio, it remains until I find a way of using it. It forces me to be more mindful of the waste I create and as a result I make my equipment, materials and designs work harder and more efficiently.
I'm also really interested in reusing waste from other industries in my work.

All material is precious.

It does however mean that I have all sorts of random stuff kicking about in my studio, some weirder than others!! 

So, I thought I should start giving you an insight into some of the more unusual materials in my repertoire, and this next commissioned piece just so happens to be a great example.
Not only was it made from a waste material created by another industry, but it was also the first time I had ever used it...and I'm fairly sure the first time anyone had attempted such a piece from this material!

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However, I can't really talk about that just yet without touching upon the material that led me to it in the first place, which is Fordite.

Fordite is a fascinating material.

Also known as Detroit Agate or Motor Agate, it is an accumulation of multiple layers of automotive paint from overspray that has built up and baked solid.
Its origins are from Ford factories in Detroit (hence Fordite or Detroit Agate) in the 1970s. As the paint built up over time chunks of it would be removed and disposed of to prevent obstruction. The story is that the material was taken by workers at the factory who, seeing the beauty in the multiple coloured layers, then began to cut, carve and shape it mostly into cabochons (rounded stones) for jewellery. As this was a material resulting from a now-extinct method of hand spraying, and the original factory has long since been closed down, genuine Fordite is now incredibly rare and difficult to get hold of. The UK version, from the Dagenham Ford factories, is even rarer! Due to the specific paint colours it is actually possible to specify the location and date of a piece of Fordite.

I'm lucky enough to have a few pieces of genuine US Fordite and Dagenham Fordite in my collection...

A few examples from my collection:
Left: Dagenham Fordite (UK) - which is extremely rare
Right: US Fordite

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This has led to lapidarists (gemstone cutters) looking out for other similar compounds to cut and turn into shiny things such as...

- Surfite - the resin run-off from glazing surfboards
- Bowlerite - cut from old ten-pin bowling balls 
- Boatite - the resin/paint run-off build-up in boatyards
- Graffiti Fordite or Graffitite - a very recent material from America, many years worth of built-up graffiti paint harvested from walls

All of these rely on the material being hard enough to withstand cutting and shaping, and since it's not being specifically made for this purpose it can be extremely unpredictable to work with!

Supplier photo:
Top left: Surfite

A few examples from my collection:
Top right: Bowlerite
Bottom left: Boatite
Bottom right: Graffiti Fordite

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In 2022 I was approached to design and make an anniversary gift from a husband to his wife.

He loved my ethos of using unusual and waste materials so was keen for it to be something that could potentially be a conversation piece when worn on special occasions but also suitable for everyday wear. He sent me a fantastic photo compilation of the jewellery his wife loved wearing, and I could clearly see that she was attracted to bold colour and pattern with almost all of the pieces being made from resin or acrylic. Along with the couple's love of the sea and a specific UK coastline that was particularly special to them, I immediately felt that UK-sourced Boatite would be the perfect material - aesthetically, practically and metaphorically.

So, me being me I suggested a bracelet made entirely from a single slab of Boatite. The idea of it really excited me, I did a fair bit of looking around and by all accounts no one has attempted this before!!

I'd already bought a few cabochons from a lapidary who sourced a beautiful colourway of Boatite from a single boatyard in Norfolk, I really loved the jade-like shades and combination of opaque and transparent. And being resin it is ultra-lightweight. So I asked whether I'd be able to purchase some of the rough material from them and thankfully they very kindly agreed...and even sliced it up for me!

In order to get a feel for the material and to choose the appropriate tools to make the bracelet I made a tester piece, freeform carving a ring from a single piece. 

I really enjoyed making this piece, I had a shape in mind before I started but found myself intuitively responding to the material. I'm obsessed with all the different patterns, textures and opacities of each of the layers, and the possibility of soft matt and highly polished finishes.

This was such an important part of the process. 

The Boatite was really satisfying to carve but very easy to remove too much material if using too aggressive a tool or too much pressure. It also became very apparent that there were some irregularities and faults within some of the material that needed careful negotiating - fine cracks where the resin layers hadn't adhered together completely as they formed which resulted in being easily snapped, air bubbles causing beautiful pitted textures but also some weak spots and uncovering random bits of wooden dowel and painters tape!

So, this being the ONLY slab of Boatite that was big enough to make the bracelet from meant some extremely careful planning and placement was needed.

Designing around the material's natural shape and faults was exciting and challenging, to say the least!

Top: Slab of Boatite rough with a template of the inside measurement for the bracelet overlayed 
Bottom left: A pesky crack in the material!
Bottom right: Proposed design of the bracelet (using some Photoshop trickery) - incorporating an undulating shape that references coastlines and boats, the origins of the material ​

To give my client an idea of how the bracelet would potentially look, I made a model from waste paper in my recycling pile pasted together to form a stack that I could then saw to size and into the proposed shape. I was also then able to show my client what it would look like worn (luckily it was my size!).

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The piece needed extremely careful sawing! I'm not going to lie, nerves got the better of me on a few occasions so I had to do it in stages and walk away when it got a bit too tense!! 

Left: Basic outer shape trimmed and inside marked out
Right: Centre cut out, leaving a little bit extra for shaping (the centre is being kept aside for the client for a potential future commission)

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As you would expect from me, ALL dust and offcuts were very carefully contained, reclaimed and stored for future reuse.

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As I carved and sanded the material it became increasingly evident that I really needed to respond to every millimetre of it in order to ensure the integrity of the structure, as I would uncover areas that had potential weak spots and I really needed to respect that. 

As a result, with consultation with my client at every stage, the inside of the bracelet took on a more organic shape than originally planned in order to avoid areas that were too thin or posed a risk of breaking. 

It's a way of working I really embrace, I love responding to materials in this way - it's a dialogue, a collaboration, and can bring about beautiful discoveries and directions. It was a very slow and mindful process of constantly being in the moment.

It ultimately produced a piece that was entirely led by the material, a dynamic harnessing of both spontaneity and control. My favourite way to create anything.

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I have since made a few more rings from Boatite [photos coming soon].

If you'd like a piece of jewellery made from this fascinating material, or indeed any of the other materials I featured here, please drop me a line via my commissions page below.

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