Faux Fordite Jewelry With Paper

Fordite is cast off layered paint from years of painting cars in Detroit. Also called Detroit Agate, artists make beautiful jewelry from these hunks of old paint. Instead of layering paint, I've opted to layer old comics and manga. I made several pieces, so I won't be going through the entire process for every piece. Instead, I'll demonstrate the process with one piece and then give a few details on the variations.

Casting Resin

Silicone Mold

Resin Tools (cup and mixing stick)

Paper

Note: 30-60 lb. paper seems to work best. I used an old manga book and scrapbooking paper for all the jewelry you see. When I used an old comic book with thin pages, it was like sanding paper alone. The paper absorbed the resin and made the color of the paper appear very dark. It was not attractive and the images were hard to see. If you use very heavy paper, I suspect the resin won't soak all the way through and you'll have a finished piece that is porous, soaking up any fluid it touches. I had a couple small spots on one of the manga pieces that seemed to soak up the green polish and are slightly tinted because of it.

Dremel with sanding and buffing bits

Jeweler's Saw

Sharpie

Sandpaper (range from 120-7000)

Plastic Polish

Safety Gear (eye protection and mask)

Leather (optional)

Heat Gun (helpful but optional)

Drill with 5/8" Spade Bit (ring only)

Clamps (ring only)

Choose a silicone mold that is shallow and larger than the jewelry piece you want to make. I opted for a coaster mold I already had.

Cut a stack of paper about a half inch high. The pieces of paper should be small enough that they easily fit inside your mold. For me, that meant pieces about 2.5" square.

Mix up enough resin to cover your paper in your mold. I made 60ml.

Put a small amount of resin in the bottom of the mold.

Use a heat gun to pop bubbles.

Lay your first piece of paper on the resin and press down with your mixing stick.

Cover with another thin layer of resin.

Use the heat gun again to pop any new bubbles.

Add another piece of paper and repeat until you've used all your paper.

Be sure to press firmly on each new piece of paper. It wants to float, so unless you press firmly, your layers will be far apart with thick layers of resin between.

You may want to reserve an interesting piece of paper for the top layer.

Once you've added your last piece of paper, add enough resin to fill the bottom of the mold and cover your stack of paper.

After the resin has cured, use a jeweler's or coping saw to trim off any excess from the sides of your paper stack. Keep in mind that these scraps can be useful. Cut strategically, and you can get several items from one stack.

Mark the edges of where you want to sand with a Sharpie.

Put on a mask and protective glasses. When sanding, this stuff goes everywhere, and I'm sure you don't want to breath it in.

Use a sanding bit on a Dremel to sand off the edges and shape it to you preference.

Start with a sandpaper that is similar to the grit on your Dremel. For me, that was 120. With this low grit sandpaper you can more carefully shape your piece and make sure there are no dents or rough spots.

Dip the resin and/or sandpaper in water to clean and reduce dust.

Now use a higher grit paper to remove the scratches from the 120 sandpaper. Continue to work through increasingly higher grits until you piece is almost shiny.

Apply a small amount of plastic polish to the surface of the piece. Use a buffing bit on a Dremel to polish the surface.

I opted to create a leather holder for my piece. You could also glue a bail to the back or drill a hole for a jump ring.

This piece was made from one of the scrap pieces.

Use a 5/8" spade bit to drill a hole.

Trim with a jeweler's saw.

Shape with a Dremel sanding bit.

Polish

I had so much fun cutting and carving these pieces to see what interesting shapes and colors I could reveal. My daughter even got in on the fun and made the earrings. I only made two blocks of paper/resin and made all these pieces. There's even a significant amount left over, so I may make a few more. Have fun experimenting and creating your own faux fordite paper jewelry.