Nature is the basis of all designs.

Eg colophonium

Various types of pines provide a sticky resin mixture called pine resin balm. It is recovered by means of 'milking', ie making small cuts into the trees' rind and collecting the resin. To obtain both the balm turpentine oil and colophonium the balm is then distilled.

The slightly sticky raw colophonium is processed by variuos means (eg by heating it together with glycerine or lime and zinc or by polimerization etc.) prior to being mixed into paints and varnishes to improve their coating and hardening properties.