A friend of mine molded a replacement handle for a broken pitcher out of epoxy, in a mold he made out of aluminum foil, and colored the epoxy with food coloring -- it came out transparent and deeply colored like colored glass. (BTW, it came out of the foil mold pretty rough so he had to smooth and polish it with files and sandpaper -- if you want to produce anything in quantity making a smoother mold would save time -- smooth the mold once instead of smoothing each piece. For a one-off, though, the foil mold worked fine.)
I guess you could color epoxy with any kind of pigment or paint or colored ink -- it seems to mix well with anything. Food colorings don't have to be permanent, though, and his handle may fade with time, so I'd rather use permanent colored inks (you can get them in art supply stores). I'm not sure they'd work if you want a really opaque finished product; maybe mixing in a lot of it would make it opaque, or nearly. Or you could try mixing in opaque water colors or maybe oil paint would work better.
I made a gun sight once out of "Miracle Weld," an epoxy putty. It took black magic marker very well (after hardening and shaping) and came out looking like ebony wood more than anything else -- in fact I think you'd have a hard time distinguishing it. Before coloring the stuff was opaque and light gray and it seems to be a bit porous -- the magic marker doesn't rub off like it does on metal.
-Cougar Allen :{)
[This message has been edited by Cougar Allen (edited 01 February 1999).]
