Hi Duiker
I make my own brass, bronze, stone powder. In my case, I put a piece of the material I want in the chuck of the metal lathe, put a cloth over the bed, and take small cuts. The resulting chips work great.
You can also use "glitter" flakes available from a craft type store.
This can also be done on a wood lathe. Brass and bronze and softer stone (soapstone, alabaster) can easily be worked with any wood turning tool. You can actually use any sharpened piece of steel.(Old files ect.)
Take very small cuts and keep the tool rest as close to the work as possible.
Copper pipe from the plumbing section of the local diy works good as well.
Whatever metal you use, it seems best to make it as you need it as the metal chips oxidize from sitting around and lose their shine.
I have used five minute epoxy, special very thin epoxy that jewellers use and half hour epoxy with equal success. The secret seems to be to leave the stuff to set for at least a week. If you try to turn it sooner it seems to go cloudy and chunks rip out.
This is by no means the definitive answer, just the way I do it.
Hope this helps
Tom
