Miyuki Color Durability

What are the effects and colors of Miyuki beads?

Miyuki, a world famous bead maker

Miyuki is the name of the manufacturer of these beads. It is a Japanese brand that designs and manufactures glass beads. Miyuki produces many different beads with different shapes, colors and effects.
They make classic seed beads, but also cylindrical glass beads called Delica. You can also find long tube beads called Bugles, rectangular beads called Tila and many others.

There are also other bead manufacturers that make similar beads but with some differences in size, hole diameter and roundness of the bead. For example, the Toho brand makes beads similar to delica. These are called Treasures beads. Sometimes these differences are very subtle.
On some types of weaving, you can mix them without any problem, but we do not recommend mixing the marks on brick stitch.

Miyuki color coding

Miyuki manufactures several thousand different bead references. In order to find your way through all this choice, Miyuki has set up a unique code for each reference. This code consists of a few letters referring to the type of bead - for example DB for delica size 11 - and 4 numbers representing the color + effect of the bead. So the reference DB1832, indicates that it is a delica 11/0 and its color and effect is galvanized gold duracoat.

This number is not always the same from one type of pearl to another. It is therefore difficult to find the rockery of the color equivalent to a delica. If we take the equivalent reference in 11/0 seed beads, we will have the number 4202. Fortunately, Miyuki has created a table of equivalences between delica and rocailles.
However, the name of the color will normally be the same from delica to rocailles.

Colors and effects of Miyuki beads

Miyuki beads are determined by a code indicating the name of the bead, as well as the color and effect. They also come with a name that makes it easy to find the same color from a rock garden to a delica. This name contains very interesting information when choosing pearls to make a creation. But you have to be able to decipher it, because most of the words are in English or are specific to Miyuki.

Let's take our example of DB-1832 Galvanized Gold Duracoat:

• Galvanized indicates the method of making the color. It is a galvanization, that is to say, an electro-chemical process allowing to "fix" a metal to a surface. The bead has therefore necessarily a metalized effect.
• Gold is the color. It means gold color.
• Duracoat is a term coined by Miyuki. It means that they put a varnish on the pearl to increase its durability. Dura => Duration => Duration and Coat => Coating => Finishing.
  Remember the term Duracoat, it is a guarantee of quality! It is true that these beads are generally more expensive than others, but the color will last perfectly for several years. It is even more important to choose duracoat with galvanized beads because this finish is very fragile.

On the product sheets of the beads you can also see the term"dyed in the mass", this means that the color is mixed with the glass. So it will not leave the surface of the bead.

Miyuki color durability chart

This information is given as a guide by Miyuki, according to their experience. The durability of the colors will, in fact, depend a lot on the use of each and every bead's reference/code.
X = Nothing to report.

We invite you to have a look at the original table on Miyuki's website: Official Miyuki color durability table and the table summarizing the durability of Delica by reference.

Color	Description	Color sample		Durability
		Rockery	Delica	Tarnishes or oxidizes	Wears out	Good
Tinted in the mass	The color is mixed with the glass. It will not fade.			X	X	yes
Duracoat	Hard wearing clear coating. Improves the durability of galvanized and stained beads.			X	X	yes
Transparent	Crystal or transparent colors, which allow light to pass through the bead.			X	X	yes
Opaque	Solid colors, which do not let light through.			X	X	yes
Silver lined	Transparent or translucent pearl with a silver coating on the inside.			Oxidation	Fragile interior	medium
Rainbow / AB	Iridescent effect, rainbow effect			X	X	yes
Luster	Luster effect, white gloss finish			X	X	yes
Gold Luster	Gold luster effect			Ternie	Wear and tear	low
Metallic	Iridescent or bronze luster effect on a black bead.			X	X	yes
Ceylon	High gloss effect.			X	X	yes
Color Lined / Inside Dyed Color / Luminous	The inside of the translucent beads is dyed.			Can Tarnish	X	yes
Dyed Color	The surface of the beads is dyed.			Can Tarnish	Wear	low
Galvanized / Plated	Beads are galvanized or plated.			Oxidation	Wear	low
Silk	White color with satin effect. Edges can cut the thread.			X	X	yes
Frost	Frosted effect			X	X	yes
Picasso	Marbled pattern coating			X	May wear out	yes