Miyuki Delica and Seed Beads Colour Codes

Miyuki Delica (aka Cylinder) and Seed beads from Japan are arguably the best beads that other manufacturers aspire to make. They are precision made beads that are very consistent in size, shape, hole alignment and colour - so important in beadwork! Their bead holes are larger than other small beads, allowing for multiple thread passes when stitching. These factors make Miyuki a firm favourite for designers in beadwork - as well as knitters, crocheters, embroiderers, quilters and fashion designers.

Miyuki are continually adding to the colours and finishes in their Delica and Seed bead ranges - and with already over 1250 size 11/0 Delica colours and over 630 colours in size 11/0 Seed bead alone - it can sometimes be quite a feat to find what you're looking for!

Luckily, Miyuki allocates a colour code to each bead they produce. You may see these as two digit codes e.g. DB10, as three digit codes e.g. DB010 or four digit codes e.g. DB0010 - in fact all these codes equate to a black Delica! We use the four digit code to denote the Miyuki colour, but if you've got a two or three digit colour code on your beads, simply add zeros in front of the number e.g. DB1 would become DB0001, DB51 would become DB0051 etc.

It is also important to note here that Miyuki does not give their bead colours names - in fact these are given by their wholesale distributers or bead shops themselves. That's why sometimes you may be looking for a replacement colour but can't seem to find it for love nor money; someone somewhere might have given it a unique moniker that isn't used by anyone else in the beading world. For example, you might think that something as simple a 'Black' would be easy to find, but what if the beads are called Opaque Black, Shiny Black, Jet, Opaque Jet, Shiny Jet... you get the picture. Instead, if you look for a bead with colour code DB0010, then any bead with that code will be the same type of Miyuki black Delica bead, wherever you buy it from.

Reading Our Miyuki Bead Packaging

Our Miyuki beads come in different types of packages, depending on which distributor we have bought them from. Typically, they will either be in a screw-top or push-fit-top tube or a clear resealable plastic bag.

As you can see by the picture, the information may be shown in slightly different formats, however once you understand how to read the label you can easily find the information you're looking for. Let's take a closer look. We'll start with Miyuki Delica Beads.

Miyuki Delica Beads

On the resealable packs of Miyuki Delicas, the type and size of the beads are clearly shown at the top of the label. It's not as easy to see on the tubes, however if you look on the zoomed in label you can see it's listed in the bead description, highlighted by the yellow box as 'Delica 15/0'.

The most important piece of information on any of these beads labels are highlighted by the dark pink boxes - these are the colour codes that show which colour Miyuki beads are in each packet. 

You can see all the Delica bead codes start with DB, followed by further letters and then our four digit colour code (you can ignore the '690' at the start of the codes on the tubes). The additional letters at the start of the code denote the size of the Delica bead:

• DBS or DBSO - Delica Bead Small (size 15/0)
• DB or DBOO - Delica Bead Original (size 11/0)
• DBM or DBMO - Delica Bead Medium (size 10/0)
• DBL or DBLO - Delica Bead Large (size 8/0)

Finally, The approximate weight of the bead packs are given, typically on the right-hand side of the label for the resealable packs and underneath the bead description on the tubes (highlighted by the blue box). The four digit code denotes the colour of the bead e.g. 0041, 0428, 0205, 0307, 0322V, 0235V, 0173V, 0106V. You may have noticed additional letters at the end of some of the codes which defines further information about that particular colour. We'll be looking at those as little further down in our 'Bead Code Abbreviations' section.

You can also have 'Cut' Delicas - Delicas with cuts on the faces of the bead to give them extra shine and sparkle. These 'Cut' beads are denoted by their bead codes:

Miyuki Seed Beads

Similar to the Miyuki Delicas, the resealable packs of Miyuki Seed beads show the type and size of the beads at the top of the label. On the tubes, the bead colour (shown in the yellow box) and package weight (shown in the blue box) are on the left hand side of the label and the code is across the middle.

The most important piece of information on any of these beads labels are highlighted by the dark pink boxes - these are the colour codes that show which colour Miyuki beads are in each packet. 

You can see all the Seed bead tube codes start with SB, followed by further letters and then our four digit colour code (you can ignore the '695' at the start of the codes on the tubes). The additional letters at the start of the code denote the size of the Seed bead e.g. SB06O, SB08O, SB11O, SB15O. The next four digit code denotes the colour of the bead e.g. 0592V, 4551V, 1018V.

On our Seed bead packs, you can see the bead colour name across the middle of the label, followed by the Miyuki colour code underneath e.g. Col: 0404D, Code: 0017.

Bead Code Abbreviations - Common Abbreviations on Delica and Seed Bead Labels

You may come across additional letters at the end of Miyuki colour codes - these help to give more information about the finish of the bead e.g.

Other common abbreviations you may find on our bead colour description are:

Miyuki Bead Size Comparisons - A Visual Guide

Searching Using Miyuki Codes On Our Website

It is really easy to find Miyuki beads on our website using the Miyuki colour codes by simply typing the colour code into the Search field at the top of the web page:

It is also worth noting here that Miyuki Seed bead colour codes carry across their range of beads.

For example, colour Code 0401 (opaque black) will be the same for their Cube beads, Spacer beads, Tilas, Half-Tilas, Quarter Tilas, Long Magatamas, Triangles and Bugle beads. This makes it much easier when you're creating your jewellery!

Now you know how to read your bead codes, we hope you find picking your next colour palette much easier and quicker. Bead beautifully with Miyuki!