About: I'm the kind of person who's mind doesn't stop. Literally, I take medication to fix that just so I can sleep at night. I have an unhealthy obsession with making things and believe, firmly, in sharing what I le…

Anyone who's ever seen my work knows I'm a sucker for all things nerdy. My home is, quite literally, a shrine to all of my favorite movies, TV shows, even games. Over the years, I've recreated hundreds of props for friends to use in their cosplay at the local Comicon, which can be extremely satisfying when you see how these props can pull a costume together.

By far, though, my favorite time waster is making display props from hit movies that didn't indulge in merchandising for various reasons, or that whatever merchandise they did create is so rare and obscure as to make it unattainable to the average person. One big stipulation, that I have, is that the props I make need to have form and function. Meaning that, it either has to operate in the same way as it does in the franchise, or it must serve some other practical function besides being a simple display item.

In my top ten list of movies is the film 'The Fifth Element'. Beyond being an amazing film, props and merchandise are extremely difficult to find, and often if you do find something its either an expensive film prop that is profoundly expensive, or a low quality (and equally expensive) representation that can only be bought from specialty sites.

For my project, I wanted to recreate the element stones that were used to kill the 'evil' in the weapon chamber in Egypt. It was evident that the movie versions were made out of polystyrene, but I wanted mine to be a bit more durable and long lasting, and so I ended up manufacturing them out of wood. Also, following my own rules on prop creation, I decided to turn them into functional pillar candle holders that I could use to decorate my dinner table during gatherings, as a conversation piece, or simply as an everyday accent.

One of the problems with creating large triangular blocks is that you need large round blades to cut them properly, and unfortunately my table saw has limitations. The movie version is roughly 9" tall and 4" on each side with a .5" bevel, but because of these limitations, I ended up reducing the sides to 3", with a .5" bevel, though I was able to maintain the 9" length. This turned out to be a bit of a blessing, however, since as a table decoration, their larger size wouldn't have been practical and would have taken up too much space to be usable. If, indeed, you wanted to make perfectly sized 'stones', you can use all of the same techniques outlined in this instructable without much alteration. I'll make notes on the appropriate steps for anyone wanting to make the full size version.