Patterning with Chena River Marblers

By Paula Beardell Krieg on July 15, 2024

Galan Pattern
Paula Krieg

I just got home from three days of doing acrylic marbling with Regina St. John of Chena River Marblers. It was like living in a dream for three straight days.

My first look at the the Chena River Marblers happened in October 2019 when Susan Joy Share and I visited our friend Mindell Dubansky. Mindell, at the that time, was collecting papers that would be celebrated in her magnificent book Pattern and Flow: A Golden Age of Decorated Papers

MIndell Dubansky showing me and Susan Share paper from Chena River Marblers, October 2019

Subsequent to the show at the Grolier Club , which exhibited 150 decorated papers from 53 paper legacy artists, Mindell spent some time marbling papers with Regina and Daniel St. John, and raved about her time there. Then other friends of mine, especially Karen Q, showed me papers they made with Regina. I am was blown away by Karen's papers, so when I saw that Regina was offering a beginners class two hours from my home, I quickly signed up.

The bottom line is that I'm interested in the process of pattern making. The process of making patterns by applying rules to a base, which is what happens in Islamic Geometric Design, in Seminole patchwork, in Frieze and Wallpaper group patterns, and in patterns made with variations of mathematical equations is captivating to me.

Laying the paint for Marbling

The patterns we made started with a method of laying paints on water thickened with carrageenan. While the process of making a decorated paper can be done by creating random splotches and doing freeform manipulations, it was the deliberate application of transformative moves that just blew me away.

Regina St. John at the marbling tank

Here's a photo of Regina in the middle of demonstrating a pattern that uses different combs going in different directions, and ends with using a comb that rocks in and out of the water, with slides and shifts, to create what she calls a Galen pattern, which I think can be described as glide reflection symmetry.

Galen Pattern made by Regina St, John

The above photo is the pattern that Regina was working on in the previous photo You may notice that there is no way to square what you see in the tank to what the final product is. Yeah. Amazing.

A peek into the marbling studio

Regina's teaching studio can accommodate four people. Working in close proximity in this intimate setting was incredibly inspiring. My workshop mates were all brilliant, focused, and supportive. What a gift! Another perk was being in Regina and Daniel's home. We would eat lunch upstairs in their dining room, which, like every other inch of their home, felt like a museum that showcased patterns of all sorts.

A patterned rug

While it would be indiscreet of me to photograph every inch of their home, I did take a few pictures of some of what surrounded us there. The rug above was something we walked on to get to the dining room.

Wall Hanging

The wall hanging above is one of the items we got to look at while eating lunch.

Ok, back to work. Here's another one of my papers:

Flame Pattern

Here's a paper where there was random stroke applied to colors:

Autumn Colors Paper

I marbled more than 30 papers over three days. My stash is just a treasure.

Tomorrow, Tuesday evening, I'm teaching a pleating workshop, so I wasted no time trying out my designs with pleating. Full disclosure: I couldn't bear to cut up my papers just yet, so I slapped them down on my printer, and made copies.