Rosin

This cake of rosin is a powdery, friable, glassy and fragrant green resin that is used to coat the hairs of musical bows. It enables the strands of horsehair on a violin bow to glide while providing the right amount of sticky friction to make the instrument sing. Rosin itself is made from the sap of, usually Greek, pine trees. After being collected from trees and boiled to drive off the excess liquids, it dries to this hard and brittle consistency but will melt with the heat produced by rubbing. It is translucent and can be any colour from a pale yellow or a deep orangey red, to a forest green.

This rosin has been mixed, probably with beeswax, to improve its integrity and hold its shape ready for use. The consistency of the rosin can be altered by the additions of additives, in order to create stickier or thinner coatings that in turn produce different tones and feel for the musician when running their bow over their instrument. Players tend to use darker, stiffer rosins for instruments with a lower pitch such as violas and cellos. Rosins are also used to improve grip in a wide range of other applications like printmaking, Irish dancing, dog grooming and chewing gum manufacture.