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Bead Adventures

If you are looking for ideas, inspiration, or beading books and supplies to aid you in your developing bead passion, you've come to the right place! Use the menu on your left or the thumbnails above to find information about workshops and slide shows, to order books or hard-to-find beading supplies, to see some of my beaded creations, to explore links to some wonderful bead-related websites, and to contact me. Since many of my students enjoy hearing about how I got started beading and tales of bead adventures along the way, I've also included some of these stories for you.

As you can read in my first book, One Bead at a Time, whether you do beadwork just for fun, as an exploration of your creativity, or with the added incentive of healing an old wound or finding a path through a life change - whatever your motivation - I believe you will always be glad for the time you give to your beadwork. As for me, beading is forever compelling, exciting, challenging, and meditative - a meaningful process that is never boring.

Robin Atkins

In an article published in Beadwork Magazine (June/July issue of 2002), writer Mary Tafoya summarized my passion for beads pretty well. Here it is in part:

"In the wide world of beads, everyone can find a niche, as historian, researcher, teacher, author, artist, or entrepreneur. But there are a handful of multitalented individuals who manage to embrace it all. Robin Atkins is one of those few. Whether following a meandering line of bugle beads across a swatch of fabric, or hunting glass bead-making industries in Eastern Europe, Robin responds unconditionally to the lure of beads. As a teacher, she advocates a spontaneous approach, a wholehearted surrender to the medium... Quick to acknowledge the significance of friends, students, and mentors in her journey, Robin recalls attending the Second International Bead Conference in Washington, D.C., 1990, and realizing she'd found her tribe. 'Growing up, I was always a bit of a loner. But I walked into the lobby and here were all these people with beads around their necks,' she says. 'There was a feeling of understanding, of being part of a group'... Today Robin maintains an active schedule of teaching improvisational bead embroidery classes, finger weaving, and other beading classes, gently mentoring others to open to the creative process and the power of beads. She also lectures to bead societies and other groups on the beads, buttons, and beadwork of Eastern Europe, among other topics..."

Enjoy your visit to this site! Please contact me if you have any questions or comments or requests regarding this site or any of its contents. Thank you! Robin