1 mins
Pretty in red
A traditional recipe receives a colourful makeover
‘When I make a new rosin, I know the quality will be good,’ says rosin maker Alexandre Thorvaldsson, ‘but I wanted to change the aesthetic. Our green Jade rosin always did very well because of its aesthetic; that’s what people want. And I had always wanted to make a red rosin because it would be pretty.’ Thorvaldsson’s new Ruby product has a near-identical recipe to the 30-year-old Jade rosin, but with a different type of French beeswax. The ingredients are all natural and sourced from Europe, including resin from maritime pines in Portugal where a consistently mild climate interferes minimally with resin quality throughout the year. ‘I am proud of the Ruby’s precise balance between grip and minimal dust,’ continues Thorvaldsson. ‘I’m also happy about its colour, which was difficult to make with only natural materials, but we got there.’
The Ruby product took Thorvaldsson nearly two years to develop – largely, he explains, because he ‘needed a full season for trials, as so many climactic factors affect the playability’.
During this time he made tweaks to stabilise the rosin’s performance across the year. By the end of the trials, he says, ‘everyone said it was very consistent. There was no surprise as to how it would react,’ whatever the weather.
FEATURED PRODUCT
To keep the product fresh, each rosin comes in a hermetically sealed box so that it doesn’t dry out. It is available in ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ versions, all for violin, viola and cello. ‘The musicians can mix them how they want,’ says Thorvaldsson, ‘depending on their tastes, or the day’.
Thorvaldsson Ruby hard and soft rosins €15 email thorvaldsson@wanadoo.frweb www.frenchrosin.com