Books by Robin Atkins - Reviews

One Bead at a Time,
Exploring Creativity with Improvisational Bead Embroidery

"One Bead at a Time" is my favorite bead book, and one of my favorite art books. This book is inspirational to advanced beaders or to beginners. If you have never beaded before, this book will encourage you to try - and succeed. It is also a wonderful discussion of creativity, improvisation, and inspiration in art, specifically bead art. I have found it to be especially encouraging in the ongoing process of bringing more self expression, personal narrative, and SOUL into my bead work. This beautifully designed book is "The Artist's Way" for beaders. I keep it on my coffee table so it will come to hand anytime I need a creative boost, because I find something new every time I read it. The new (revised) edition has wonderful fringe techniques, the perfect finishing touch

Megan Noel, Washington

I really like "One Bead at a Time" because it helps me feel like I can do it - that there is no right or wrong way. I'm not intimidated in the least. I also feel that each time I pick up the book, I'll get something else out of it. It helps me to focus on one small thing, to start and see where it goes. The less thought I put into it, the more creative I can be. I can throw away the judgment in this work. I love doing free-form peyote, and I know it would have been scary if I hadn't taken a class from Robin and read her book. I bead with several other women, and they love the personal nature of this book, and feel they can "just do it" too!

Julie Cook, Minnesota

I am speechless! I am full of joyful tears! Your book is absolutely priceless! You have done a beautiful job and I congratulate you, Robin! It's a treasure for me and I am bursting with ideas. Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us, your faithful and adoring students!

Connie Fabian, New Zealand

I am so pleased with your book! I think you did a wonderful job defining "improvisational bead embroidery" and describing the tools and techniques to get started. I was also impressed by your willingness to share personal stories about your life and beadwork. This book is a great addition to my "beading books library" and I think it will provide incentive to those who have not yet tried bead embroidery. Thanks so much for taking the time to produce this.

Georgia Williams, Washington

After taking your improvisational beading workshop, I showed the piece I made to my Mom and gave her a copy of your book. Mom read the book very thoroughly, as she does with things she is particularly interested in. I gave her one of my small beading needles and she went to work. It was amazing to watch her create a beautiful improvisational beaded piece simply by reading your book and following your directions. We were both very pleased, and she gave it to me for my birthday. It is a very special gift to me from her because she is 91 years old... She says she wants to use a scrap from her wedding dress for her next piece.

Sally Dickman, Washington

Your book is not just about beads; it is psychology, philosophy, and autobiography.  I love your other-worldly views of life, especially your belief in letting the subconscious do its own thing, especially in your suspicion of and distrust of rational thinking, especially your views on how our schools stifle creativity!

Henry Parker, Tennessee

We got home late last night and found that your book had arrived. We tore it open immediately and began savoring the pictures - great color. I took a little time this morning to read - opened it to your menopause beading. I admire you so much - such courage to talk about what to me are very intimate feelings and thoughts, and how you worked through them doing bead embroidery. There is so much of you in this book. I can hardly wait to sit down and read it all the way through!

Jennifer Chase, California

WHAT A BOOK! It is absolutely wonderful; first-class quality production! But also I love that reading it makes it seem just like you're here telling me these things; I can just hear your voice saying what you've written.

Patricia Gustafson, Australia

Your book is wonderful - I read it the day it arrived, and have since reread it. It has me thinking about working out some of my own issues with beads. I have found the piece I started in your class, and it is waiting patiently for me to "get with it". I was especially interested in the piece you did about your father. I remember being curious about it when I took your class, but was too shy to ask you about it. I lost both parents at an early age - my mother when I was four and my dad when I was nine. I have just this year worked out a lot of things by writing a family history for my nieces and including old photographs of my parents. I'll show you sometime. But after reading your book, I want to do something in beads also.

Mary Ann Berrie, Washington

Beaded Embellishment,
Techniques & Designs for Embroidering on Cloth

I just now sat down with my new just-sent copy of your book, and it's fabulous! The project choices are lovely, the instructions are clear, concise, and useful, the gallery looks cohesive and inspirational, and the overall design is cheerful and easy. Congratulations on all of your hard work!

Jean Campbell, Minnesota

Amy C. Clark & Robin Atkins offer an approachable learning experience, practical suggestions, and pages of inspiration for novices and advanced beaders alike in their new book "Beaded Embellishment". This is a thoughtful, artful book and should be read accordingly. Don't miss the introduction as both women set the tone for all else to follow. They give voice to the experience of using beads as a medium for a "magical journey". They speak with understanding that beading is more than the hours spent doing the work or the number of beads used in making a piece of beadwork. The authors present working with beads as an art form, filled with all the history, feelings, hopes and stumbling blocks that are inherent in such an undertaking.  ....  In "Beaded Embellishment", Amy C. Clarke and Robin Atkins go beyond a basic book about bead embroidery. The knowledge the authors provide is laced with an artistic philosophy that broadens the concept of embroidering with beads and leads the reader to an awareness of possibilities both for the artistically brave and for those needing a helping hand and a place to begin.

Excerpts from a published review
by NanC Mienhadrt, Illinois

Rich on history and technique, this definitive work by two leading beadworkers offers the first comprehensive look at the vast opportunities for self-expression with beads on cloth.  ....   Whether artists are creating for their livelihood or simply as a hobby, beaded embellishment is on the rise. "In 1988 when I started beading full-time, not one beading book was in print," Robin Atkins says. "Now, fourteen years later in 2002, there are more then 600 available and more are published all the time. I believe the birth of beading as an art form is the reason behind the tremendous sustained interest in beading as a hobby at the turn of the twenty-first century."  ....   "People have a compelling need to cover garments and basic household objects with precious stones and pretty glass beads," says co-author Amy C. Clarke, whose grandmother taught her to embroider tea towels at an early age. "We have filled this book with practical information you can use to learn how to create with bead embroidery." Clarke and Atkins, both noted bead artists whose works are widely recognized in the bead world, share years of expertise and enthusiasm in this comprehensive guide to the techniques and projects that are certain to inspire beaders, quilters, and fiber artists alike.

Excerpts from an on-line review
by the Bead Babe for the Bead Bugle