Yesterday at orchestra rehearsal a young lady in our violin section introduced me to a novel but effective way to mute the instrument. There are a couple of pieces we play where we have to accomnpany a vocalist and so as not to overpower the vocalist we have to either play very softly and/or mute the instrument.  I don't happen to have a mute handy so I played softly. After the rehearsal she mentioned to a few of us that she uses a clothespin for a mute. She simply clips it onto the bridge below the strings about halfway between the strings and the body of the violin. And it does make a difference. She gave me a with/without demo of how it works and there is a noticeable difference. Apparently it does dampen the vibrations transferred from the strings through the bridge to the body of the violin resulting in a more subdued, "muted" sound yet without negatively affecting the tonal qualities of the vibrations.  At least one or two other people mentioned that they too have used a clothespin as a violin mute. The idea is not to silence the instrument, just to reduce vibrations and hence volume somewhat. It does indeed work. From now on I am carrying a clothespin in my violin case,