Miyuki has made many colortypes. When you want to combine different colors, it can be hard to estimate which colors make a beautiful combination.

The most common colortypes are opaque and transparent, because these are basic colors without special coating or effect. When you would break the bead, you’d see that the whole bead has an even color. These colors won’t fade from of wear and tear because the whole bead is one solid color.

Opaque and transparant

Colortypes that have an extra shine are the luminous beads in bright colors, the Ceylon beads in softer colors and the luster beads that have a bit of an oily-effect. These beads also barely change or fade from wearing the jewelry.

Luminous and ceylon

Opaque luster and opaque ab.

Opposed to the shiny colortypes are the matte and frosted beads. These beads are more matte. The frosted still has a slight shine in it, but the matte beads are totally matte. Especially the metallic matte have very beautiful and intense colors.

Opaque matte and metallic matte.

Some colors, such as pink and purple, are hard to create. They can be made with a dyed layer. This means that the color is painted onto a plain bead. This layer could peel off or fade after wearing or using the beads often. Since a few years there is an solution to this problem of wear, which is Duracoat. The Duracoat layer is put on top of the layer of color and gives extra protection for the bead. The Duracoat layer is put on galvanished, dyed, metallic and plated beads because these are sensitive to fading. Because the duracoat finish is an extra layer, the inside hole can be slightly smaller. The tip we can give here is to use a thinner thread and needle.

Duracoat galvanized and duracoat opaque dyed

Metallic and plated

Special colortypes are silk satin beads, beads with a silk-like core and pearlized beads, beads with a shiny core. With colorlined beads you can make beautiful combinations. However, they are less useable to be used as outer row on a woven bracelet because they’re partly transparent and the color of the bead is only visible in the core. This means woven bracelets won’t have a neat edge.

Silk satin dyed  and colour lined

The risk of wear and tear differs per colortype, on this overview made by Miyuki you see the durability per colortype.

The durability

A: fading or flaking can be caused by sunlight and usage.

B: fading or flaking can be caused by contact with the skin and the oils that skin produces.

C: fading or flaking can be caused by cleaning the beads.

O: when used normal, there won’t be any fading or flaking.

-: there is a chance that the bead will change color or fade.

X: this colortype is sensible for fading or flaking, so keep this in mind.

A last tip: when you combine different colortypes you get extra contrast within your creation. For example, Metallic matte appears to be extra matte when combined with galvanized beads.

Examples in which different colortypes are combined.

Do you have favorite colortypes? Or favorite combinations? If you have questions or comment? Let us know below!