handmade Superman crystals

Dan Efran

Active Member
One of the first props of which I ever wanted a replica was the green crystal from Superman (1978). Along with a handful of the clear crystals to go with it.
They're such pretty props, and fairly important to the plot at various points.

After wanting them for almost four decades I decided it was time to go ahead and make a set of these classic movie crystals.

I recently learned how to carve and polish acrylic. Although I don't have the right tools to make these crystals the "right" way - the easy way - I found a method that works well. It only takes about 6 hours of hard work per crystal!

I didn't make exact replicas of specific props, just "pretty close" interpretations that hopefully have the right look.

I've got some interesting in-progress pics I'll probably post later, but for now, the final result:

crystals finished 1.JPG

I'm delighted with how well these turned out.

crystals finished 3.JPG
 
Thanks!

I decided I had room for another crystal, so I made one more; this time I got the whole process on video. So I might edit together a little video tutorial on this, rather than just posting a handful of build-process pictures and a wall of text like I usually do.
 
Nice work my friend, I did the same a few years ago. Where did you get the green acrylic from, haven't been able to make my own green crystal as I can't seem to track down the proper stuff. But the colour of your green crystal looks dead on to the movie prop!!! :)
 
The green rod came from Delvie's Plastics. It's colored cast acrylic (unpolished).
Here's the relevant page:
http://www.delviesplastics.com/p/Colored_Acrylic_Rod.html

I chose the color "2092 Transparent Green". I couldn't tell from their picture if it would look right, and even when the rod arrived it was hard to tell if it was really the right color. But once it's carved and polished, yeah, it looks great. I think it's maybe not quite as dark as the movie prop, but then it looks different depending on how you light it, so I'm satisfied.

I used the 1" diameter. (I see that it's even more expensive now than it was when I bought it. Yikes.) I didn't try to replicate the prop precisely, but I aimed for a pretty close approximation of it, and I think 1" gave me plenty of material to work with. (The 48" length sure did! :unsure I guess I'll make a few more someday....)
 
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