Fantastical Faces From Sculpted Concrete Leftovers

I'm not a great sculptor, but my husband does a lot of cement work, so I decided to see if I could sculpt his leftovers. It turned out to be easy to turn waste cement into fantastical faces, complete with bright painting to make them really stand out!

Materials

cement, sand, and water

concrete primer

paint (spray paint, acrylic, oil... whatever you have)

Tools and Equipment

bucket and trowel for mixing

knives for sculpting

concrete or other type of flat surface to put your sculpture on

gloves

goggles or mask to protect your eyes

When my husband does concrete work there is almost always a little bit left over.

If you are making sculptures from waste cement, remove any large rocks if you have them in the mix, because if you don't, they'll make it hard to create smaller details. I got different kinds of concrete, some with small rocks, some with just sand (for plastering), and some that was tile cement. You can reuse all kinds for this project!

You might have to work fast with waste/leftover concrete, so make sure you have space and time ready.

If you are making a fresh mix of concrete, follow the instructions on your cement bag. Normally, you need to mix 1 part water, 2 parts cement, and 4 parts sand. It's good to mix the cement and sand together when they're dry, then add water, a little at a time. If your sand is moist, use less water. It's good if you don't put in any rocks at all, and using fine sand is better.

When you're done mixing, leave the concrete for a long time. Wait until it starts getting firm. For me this took 3 hours!

When your concrete starts to get firm, take it out of your bucket and place it on your cardboard or other flat panel. Then you can start to press it out into the general shape you want.

When that is done, you might still need to wait. It will be ready to sculpt when you can press a finger in and it will only just make a little fingerprint.

Now you can use your sculpting tools, like a trowel, knives, or whatever you want. You can even sculpt just with your hands if you are wearing rubber gloves.

If the concrete doesn't stay put, just let it harden some more.

When you're done, leave it overnight.

In the morning, you can use any tool to scrape away any bits and bumps you don't want, and you can even carve into it a bit more because it won't be totally hard yet.

Once you are happy with your wild creation, leave it to cure for several days. A week is good!

Before you paint, make sure your concrete sculpture is cured and dry. You can do this by leaving it on cardboard overnight. If you pick it up and the cardboard is moist, this means there is still moisture in your sculpture, so you should wait.

When it's dry, the first step is to coat the entire thing in concrete primer or sealer. This will help cover the surface and keep it from crumpling. It will also help paint stick if you are using spray paint or brushing on acrylics.

When your primer/sealer is dry, you can paint however you like. Oil paint is durable, but hard to do if you don't have experience.

Spray paint is fast. Acrylic paints can blend nicely to make nice effects.

Choose what's best for you!

You can also glue on parts, like I did with my ladybug. Those are plastic caps from old spray paint bottles.

I also have a friend who is a great street artist, and he wanted to experiment with painting masks - lucky me!

Go wild, go crazy, and make your sculptures bright and beautiful, or dark and mysterious!!!

I made mostly faces, inspired by aliens. But you don't have to focus on masks.

My ladybug was supposed to be a plain mask, but my friend said it would look good like a beetle, so there you go!

Here are some other ideas:

-Add metal or plastic parts using glue.

-Put wood or plastic pieces in the backs that can be pulled out when the concrete is dry, so you have holes to hang them on the wall.

-Place your sculptures in the garden to make a fantasy setting.

-Make quick carvings with plaster, then make silicone moulds. You can then fill these with any waste concrete you have to make repeatable sculptures again and again!