Hi Friends!

For the past few months I have been dabbling in creating things out of concrete/cement. Playing with concrete is like conducting your own little science experiment. “Will is work? Did I add too much water? What happens if I add paint to mixture?”

I have had a blast making these little gems. I used a candy mold that I purchased at a craft store. I created the cement mixture the same way as I created cement shells while back.

Cement Gemstones

Materials: a plastic candy mold, concrete mix, container to mix the concrete in, a plastic spoon for stirring and scooping, Vaseline and tiny paintbrush to coat the inside of the candy mold.

1. Mix the concrete according to the directions on the package. Start by putting a couple of inches of water in the bottom of my bucket, then pour in the concrete mix until it reached the consistency of cake batter

2. Coat the mold with Vaseline to prevent the cement from sticking.

3. Scoop the concrete out and fill each mold about half full (or however thick you want your finished magnets to be). If they’re not

4. When the concrete has just started to set but is still pliable, push in the magnets, leaving just the very top of them poking out.

5. Set the gems aside and allow to fully set, 12 hours or so.

6. Pop the gems mold.

7. Sand the bottom edges to smooth them out with a fingernail file.

I applied a thin layer of gold paint over these little gem hearts. Concrete is fun to work with and it is such a cheap material. If you screw it up, no big deal, you still have a huge amount left in that $5.00 bag. I am still working on obtaining the correct consistency and decreasing the air bubbles.I favor the stones that are partially painted and partially raw cement. Teal is always a winner in my book. I glued earring backs to each gem and created earrings.

The one problem that I am having is the concrete breaking or crumbling a little after a lot of use. They are most likely to break when I remove my earrings by taking the backing off the stud. I am thinking about setting the earring stud into the wet cement mixture so that they bond together better. Any ideas ?

It has been a fun little ongoing project. What else would you guys create out of these little gems?

Thanks, Carmody

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Carmody Tisdale