Glass Gems

How is it possible to make gems at home?

I'd like to know how it is possible to make gems at home. Well, I know you can make them out of glass but I can't do them like that , and I'm not really allowed to cook stuff at the stove.
So, I was wondering is there any other possible way to make gems at home?
If it helps, so you'll know what to recommend, I'm under 18 so ^^.

That depends on what you mean by "making" them, and what kinds of gems you're interested in.

You can't of course "make" real gems since they're usually created with a huge amount of pressure and heat inside the earth from various minerals.
You can make things that look like real gems though (faux gems) in various ways.

You could make the CLEAR-transparent kinds of gems from craft resins for example (depending on thickness-- a clear craft epoxy resin like Envirotex Lite or a polyester resin like Castin Craft's Clear Polyester Casting resin, or the tweaked epoxy resin Easy Cast, or even 2-part epoxy glue like Devcon's 2 Ton). To color those, use artists' oil paints (in tubes).
If you're interested in using craft resins, check out this page for lots of lessons, examples, brand names, when to use one resin vs. another, how to use "bezels" or just molds with resins, etc:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/other_materials.htm

...and in this looong thread at Craftster:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=10667.0

and other parts of that Jewelry & Trinkets board

Or you could perhaps make them from clear fingernail polish, clear liquid polyurethanes (hardware store) or other clear acrylic finishes from craft stores, dimensional white glues like Diamond Glaze, clear embossing powders, etc....but you'd have to figure out if and which releases are needed when each is used in a mold. To color those, use water-based liquids.

The most convincing faux gems that are NOT CLEAR though (turquoise, pearl, amber, coral, jade, lapis, ivory, carnelian, and many more) are probably those made with polymer clay ("oven-bake" clays like Premo, Kato Polyclay, Cernit, FimoClassic, etc.). In fact polymer clayers have spent a lot of time figuring out how to do that, and various techniques and looks have been created.

The manipulated clay is usually shaped in molds then removed for baking/hardening for making cabochon shapes (but can also be created freehand as all kinds of beads or even whole cuff bracelets or as "carved" items, etc). They also often sanded and buffed or given a coat of clear finish (satin or gloss) afterwards so they'll look "polished" as from a tumbler but they wouldn't have to be.

If you're interested in making those kinds, and making them from polymer clay, check out these pages at my polymer clay "encyclopedia" site dealing with "fauxs":

http://glassattic.com/polymer/Faux--many.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/faux-ivory.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/faux--turquoise_wood.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/inclusions.htm

Or you can do image searches online, using the words polymer clay plus the name of whichever gem you're interested in, to see lots more examples... for instance, here are some image searches (at Bing) for various fauxs made with polymer clay:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=polymer+clay+turquoise

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=polymer+clay+faux+abalone

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=polymer+clay+faux+pearl

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=polymer+clay+faux+jade

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=polymer+clay+faux+amber

HTH,
Diane B.