THOM ATKINS: Beaded Quilts

Lecture: Beaded Quilts
Date:  Saturday, October 6th, 10:00 a.m.  Come at 9:30 to socialize.
Business Meeting: 11:00 a.m. 
Location:  Cross and Crown Lutheran Church,
​5475 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park Note: The Founder's Day Parade is that day and Snyder Lane will be closed. Please click here for the detour.
Renowned artist, award-winning quilter, teacher and author, Thom Atkins will speak about beaded quilts. Thom uses beads to add texture, dimension,  drama and lifelike details to his quilted creations.
About Thom Atkins

A fifth generation Californian, Thom has been a landscape designer and stained glass artist. He also taught glass art in the public school system as a visiting artist. Thom moved on to study welding, forging, silver smithing, and bronze casting. Settling on bronze sculpture became his primary medium.

In 2002, Thom was involved in a traffic accident, severely damaging his wrists and thumbs.  Since it was clear that pushing clay around was no longer an alternative, he decided to combine a love of beads with fabric and explore them as a new medium of expression.  

In time, surgery repaired the damage but the shift had been made and a whole new vista of fabric and beads had opened up.  “Bead Embellished Quilts”, less sculptural and more colorful, became the order of the day.  Finding the balance between beads and fabric, where each is integrated into the design and both are essential to the overall composition, has provided ample challenges for Thom’s active imagination.  He has come to a point where neither “Bead Embellished” nor “Quilt” seem accurate or applicable terms, yet he continues to use them for lack of more precise definitions of what he does.  

After doing several shows, Thom admits that quilts with beads are a whole lot easier than bronze to pack and carry around. He still sometimes sees images that call out for materials other than fabric and beads, and his fingers still itch for the feel of clay, so it's likely that bronze and clay are not banished from the work area forever.

Thom's work may be seen in many shows across the nation and on his website.