How Beadalia works — guide

What you'll find in Beadalia

Beadalia is built to help you through a whole project, from picking colours to the last row of the pattern. You can search for beads, create patterns, check what's already in your stash, generate a shopping list and follow the pattern while you work.

You don't have to use every page. Plenty of people only ever open the Catalog and the Editor, and that's perfectly fine. Use whatever is useful to you.

Catalog

The catalog holds 1,897 Miyuki Delica beads across all four sizes (the 20 Mix assortments are hidden), together with the official information for each one: the DB code, the Miyuki name, the glass type, the finish and the durability data.

The swatches you see are not photographs of the beads. They're renders generated from the hex value, the glass type and the finish. The upside is that every colour is shown in a consistent way and is easy to compare. That said, some finishes — metallic, AB or lustre — can look different in real life. If you're working on a project where the exact shade matters, order a few grams first and check.

Those beads are spread across the four Delica sizes. There are 1,266 distinct colour numbers — every colour exists in 11/0, and some also in 15/0, 10/0 and 8/0. If a colour is there in 11/0 but missing in 15/0, it simply means Miyuki doesn't produce it in that size.

You can search by the full code, for example DB0200, or just by the number, like 200. Searching by colour name works too.

The filters on the left can be combined to narrow things down quickly:

• size
• glass type
• finish
• durability
• colour family

If there are colours you reach for often, add them to Favourites. They're saved straight into your browser, so you don't need an account for this.

By default, colours are shown in a natural gradient, moving from one hue to the next and from light to dark. If you prefer the official Miyuki order, switch the display to DB code.

Artkal

Alongside Miyuki Delica, Beadalia has a second bead family: Artkal fuse beads — plastic beads you lay on a square pegboard and iron. There are three manufacturer series (S, C, M), each with its own colour catalogue.

A fuse canvas has no stitch, no thread and no Miyuki aught size. Cells are square, colours are Artkal codes, and matching a photo or generating a palette uses only the colours Artkal actually published as RGB.

A series is not an aught size. S is 5 mm Midi. C and M are both 2.6 mm Mini, with different catalogues. A C code and an M code are never interchangeable, even though the bead is the same millimetre. Miyuki's 11/0, 15/0, 10/0 and 8/0 are four sizes of one colour range; Artkal's three series do not share codes.

Hama, Perler, NABBI, PhotoPearls and SES Creative do not appear. They have no public routes.

The Artkal catalogue

The Artkal catalogue is at /catalog/artkal. The page opens on series S, not on a series picker as the page body. The other series are /catalog/artkal/s, /catalog/artkal/c and /catalog/artkal/m; you can switch series from the list on the same page.

Grid search matches the code only — for example S01, S140, SE12. Names (“Gold”, “Silver”, “Transparent”) are not searched. “Gold” does not find S41. In the editor picker, search matches the name as well.

You can filter by category, by published RGB, and by Favourites. Favourites are one shared set for S, C and M, saved in the browser; you don't need an account. With Favourites on, the category and published-RGB filters are suspended; search still applies. Changing series resets search and filters; the stars stay.

The swatches are renders from Artkal RGB, not photographs. A ~ mark means an approximate colour, not a published measurement. C152 (the chart value has B=273, which is not accepted as RGB) and MH1 Transparent have no display colour — they sit under “Colours without published RGB”. Equivalences in the catalogue are recorded, not applied: C152 is not silently replaced with S153.

Only published RGB goes into photo matching and the palette generator. A colour that is only approximate can be shown and picked onto an editor palette by hand; it cannot be chosen by the converter or the generator.

On series S, the special finishes are:

• solid 176 (156 plain S, 17 SE with a new colour number, 3 metallics with no published RGB);
• translucent 8 (ST1–ST8);
• glitter 6 (SL1–SL6);
• glow 7 (SG1–SG7);
• neon 4 (SN1–SN4);
• pearl 8 (SP1–SP8);
• UV 4 (SU1–SU4, not SUV1);
• stripe 12 (SD01–SD12).

S41 Gold, S42 Silver and S63 Copper have no published RGB. SE is both solid and “new colour number”: the Solid filter includes them. The colour families in the grid (White, Beige, Yellow…) are hue buckets Beadalia derived, not Artkal's families.

On C: CT1–CT9 translucent, CG1–CG7 glow, CP1–CP7 pearl, plus C35 Silver (no published RGB). C has no glitter, neon, UV or stripe codes in the shipped catalogue. On M, codes are grouped MA, MB, MC…; Artkal publishes no legend for what the letters mean. MH1 is Transparent. Do not treat the M letters as finishes.

The editor on a fuse canvas

When you set up the canvas, on fuse the stitch and aught size go away, a catalogue select appears, and the grid is square. The construction is a flat grid. The default canvas is 20×20. Each side is between 2 and 600 cells.

Switching seed ↔ fuse rebuilds the grid; there is no conversion. Switching between S, C and M keeps the lattice and discards the painting — palette indices would silently recolour. If you have painted cells, the app asks. Undo is cleared. The link to the saved design is broken, so Save cannot overwrite the old project.

The materials card shows pieces, not grams, and does not compare fuse stock. The ✔⚠✖ marks do not appear on fuse. Thread estimate and recommended needle are hidden. The production-cost card (Pro or Lifetime) cannot price fuse beads from piece inventory: every colour comes out unpriced.

PNG is free, no account. Personal PDF needs an account, on any plan: physical size comes from the series millimetres, grams are hidden, the thread diagram is refused, approximate colours are marked, and an empty grid or an unknown used code is refused. Shop-branded PDF needs Pro or Lifetime.

Follow works on fuse, without Pro. Rows run in grid order, left to right. Needle direction is omitted. Empty runs are peg gaps, not a colour to fetch. Cells with no published RGB are not filled with a substitute colour. If you mark the project finished and that creates a new Library design, the free-plan cap of 5 applies.

The fuse palette generator

The fuse generator is at /palettes/fuse. Default series S. The colour pool is the published RGB of the selected series. Colours with no published RGB, approximate-only colours, C152 and MH1 are not in the pool.

You get scheme, series, colour family and finish. The colour count is between 2 and 6, default 5. There is no Miyuki size, glass or durability, and you cannot send the palette to the bracelet combo builder. Space generates a new palette.

A named save needs an account, not Pro. “Only from my inventory” does not see Artkal piece stock — do not treat it like the Delica generator.

The generator will never pick glow, pearl, translucent, UV, stripe, glitter, neon, metallics, MH1 or C152, because those have no published RGB. The editor picker shows them.

From a photo, on fuse

The converter matches the open canvas's catalogue, published RGB only. There is no stitch dropdown. Preview is free. Apply to the editor is Pro or Lifetime: the button looks as if it will work, then opens Pro and does not write to the canvas.

“Only inventory” uses fuse stock. If that filter finds no colours, it falls back to the whole series — the control can look on and still match the full catalogue.

Inventory and the shopping list

Fuse rows in Inventory are in pieces, per catalogue and per code, so S01 in series S does not share a pool with an S01 in another catalogue. The add dialog has a series select. Clearing fuse stock does not clear Delica grams. Inventory does not require Pro.

The shopping list subtracts piece stock. Display is pieces only, never grams. The editor materials card does not do this subtraction on fuse — the shopping list is where you see what you are short. The shopping list does not require Pro either.

Editor

The editor is where you build your patterns.

The first step is setting up the canvas. This is where you choose the stitch, the bead size and the unit of measurement.

Dimensions can be entered in millimetres, centimetres or inches, and Beadalia works out the bead count automatically using the real dimensions of each Delica size.

The app also accounts for the fact that a Delica bead is slightly wider than it is tall — which matters a lot for peyote patterns.

The stitch changes more than the numbers; it changes how the pattern is drawn.

With Loom / Square Stitch, the beads line up perfectly.

With Peyote and Brick Stitch, the rows are offset exactly as they appear in real life, and the bead hole is shown in the right orientation.

The tools

All the main tools sit in the bar on the left, arranged so you can draw quickly whether you're making something simple or something very intricate.

You have:

• Brush, for drawing bead by bead.
• Fill, for colouring an area in a single click.
• Eyedropper, to pick up a colour already used in the pattern.
• Eraser.
• Line and rectangle tools.
• Stencils.

Undo and Redo are always available, from the interface or from the keyboard.

Stencils

If you use certain shapes or repeating motifs often, stencils will save you a lot of time.

The app comes with a library of ready-made stencils, and you can also draw your own and reuse them whenever you need.

The side panel

The panel on the right can be moved to the bottom or to the left using the buttons at the top.

On a large monitor it's usually most comfortable on the right.

On a laptop or a smaller screen, many people prefer to move it to the bottom to leave more room for drawing.

The panel cards

Palette. Shows every colour used in the current project. You can add colours straight from the Catalog or load a palette you saved earlier.

Needed for the design. This card works out everything the project requires. You'll see:

• the bead count for each colour;
• the grams needed;
• how much of the pattern is already filled in;
• how much is left to draw;
• an estimate of the thread required;
• the recommended needle;
• the recommended thread.

Bead list. Shows the bead count and weight for each colour. If you also use the Inventory, Beadalia tells you straight away whether you have enough beads for the project. You'll see one of three symbols:

• ✔ you have enough
• ⚠ you have that colour, but not enough of it
• ✖ it isn't in your inventory at all

Production cost. Available on Pro. Works out the material cost for each project, so you know what a piece costs you to make.

Profit calculator. Also Pro. Helps you set a selling price starting from the margin you want, or the other way round — see what profit you'd make at a price you've already fixed.

Follow

Follow is the page you'll most likely keep open while you work. The point of it is simple: to help you stay on the current row without easily losing your place in the pattern.

The row you're on is highlighted automatically, and the app keeps showing you how many beads are left and how long you've been working on the project.

Moving between rows

You can move to the next row with:

• Space
• Enter
• the Down arrow

The Up arrow takes you back to the previous row.

If the pattern is very wide and you've zoomed in, you can move the image sideways with the Left and Right arrows. You can also drag the pattern directly with the mouse, or with your finger on a touchscreen.

Zoom and Focus

You can zoom in and out with the dedicated buttons.

If you want to concentrate only on the area you're working on, turn on Focus Mode. It dims the surrounding rows and leaves visible only as many rows as you choose. On complex patterns the difference is surprisingly big, and it makes following the chart much easier.

Auto-scroll

With Auto-scroll on, Beadalia keeps the current row centred on screen as you move through the pattern. No need to reposition the image after every row.

Voice control

When your hands are busy, you can drive the app with your voice. Speech recognition listens in the language the app is set to, so speak the language you're using it in. In English, say:

• “next” for the next row
• “previous” or “back” for the previous row
• “repeat” to hear the current row again
• “done” or “complete” to mark the row as finished

This is one of the most appreciated features while beading, because you no longer have to touch your phone or computer after every row.

Lock screen

The Lock screen button disables accidental interaction with the pattern. It's especially useful on a phone or tablet, where it's very easy to nudge the image without meaning to.

Fullscreen

Fullscreen hides everything that isn't needed and leaves just the pattern on screen. If you work on the same project for hours, this is probably the mode you'll use most.

Bookmarks

On long patterns you can bookmark any row, then jump between bookmarks with the dedicated buttons.

Your position is saved automatically, so you can close the app and pick up a few days later exactly where you left off.

Palettes

The Palettes page helps when you know the style or the mood you're after but haven't settled on the colours. You pick the type of palette and Beadalia generates combinations using colours from the catalog.

You can generate:

• Random
• Analogous
• Complementary
• Triadic
• Pastel

Press Generate, or simply use Space for a new combination.

How many colours

The number of colours is easy to change with the + and − buttons. Five are generated by default, but you can pick exactly how many you want.

Lock the ones you like

If one of the colours really works for you, lock it. On the next generation that colour stays put and the app only varies the rest of the palette.

It's a very quick way to refine a combination without starting from scratch every time.

Filters

Palettes use the same filters available in the Catalog. For instance, you can generate only:

• matte colours;
• durable colours;
• particular finishes;
• particular colour families.

Only from my inventory

Probably the most practical option on this page. With it on, Beadalia generates palettes using only the colours you already have in your inventory.

Very handy when you want to start something new without placing another order.

Send straight to the Editor

A palette you like can be sent to the Editor right away, or saved for later.

Combos

The Combos page is for those moments when you just want to see how a few colours look next to each other. Instead of building a full pattern, you can preview them quickly in different arrangements.

Add the colours in the order you want, choose the layout and see the result immediately. You can pick from:

• Peyote band;
• Chevron;
• Diamond;
• Wave;
• Zig-zag.

It's a simple way to test ideas before starting something bigger.

If you like what you see, you can copy the colour codes quickly, or open the palette straight in the Editor and start drawing.

Inventory

The Inventory page helps you keep track of every bead you own. You can add each colour along with the grams you have, organise beads into categories, and set the currency used for cost calculations.

Once your inventory is filled in, the rest of the app starts using it automatically. For example:

• the Editor tells you whether you have enough beads for a project;
• the palette generator can use only the colours in your inventory;
• the shopping list works out just what you're missing.

Import from an invoice

There's no need to enter every colour by hand. Import from invoice can pull the codes and quantities automatically from:

• text;
• CSV;
• PDF.

So you can update your inventory in seconds, even after a large order.

Shopping list

The shopping list compares what the project needs against the beads in your inventory. What's left is exactly what you have to buy.

If you're working on several projects at once, Beadalia combines all the lists and adds up the quantities for the same code. That way you don't order the same colour twice, or forget something important.

Products

The Products page (Organize → Products) is a table of every saved design: live bead cost from inventory, plus labour, price, profit and margin if you filled those in the editor calculator. The editor profit card ends with a “Compare pieces” link.

The editor calculator prices one piece; this list compares them all. Cost and profit do not behave the same on Products and in the editor. What follows is what is true now on each surface — not a planned future.

The Products table

Six columns, all sortable. Default sort is margin descending. A blank cell is —. There are no inputs on this page: labour, price, extra costs, fee and mode are edited only in the editor, through Open or Open to fill in.

• Piece — thumbnail, name, In progress or Finished;
• Material — bead cost, always, even on unfilled rows;
• Labour — hours × rate, only if filled in; otherwise —;
• Price — sale price from the calculator, only if filled in;
• Profit — after the marketplace fee, minus total cost, only if filled in;
• Margin — profit / price × 100, only if filled in.

Material is beads only, live from the saved grid and the current inventory. Thread, clasps and manual lines from the cost card do not go in here. Neither does overhead. If you change a price in Inventory, the column updates without re-saving the design. If no colour is priced, you see —, not 0.00. An unpriced colour is missing, not free. Empty stock is unpriced, even if you remember what it used to cost.

The Labour column is hours × rate only. Overhead and the marketplace fee enter Profit and Margin, not Labour. Break-even is editor-only. A filled row with Material — still computes profit as if material were 0, so the margin comes out inflated. On fuse, Material is —: there is no pieces × cost-per-piece path in this calculation.

The page is open to everyone, including signed-out visitors and the free plan. It has no padlock and no Pro badge. The editor cards that write these numbers are Pro or Lifetime. On the free plan you can read on Products any figures saved on this device; you cannot open the calculator that writes them.

Profit settings live on this device only. They do not sync. Extra costs in the editor do sync, because they sit in the document. If you fill the calculator on the laptop, Products rows on the phone can be blank.

The editor cards

The editor has two cards, both with a PRO pill: production cost and the profit calculator. The headers show on every plan; the contents are locked without Pro or Lifetime. On the free plan you see a padlock, no numbers. Clicking opens Pro.

The cost card: the bead line (or — if no used colour is priced), plus one row per extra cost. The total is beads plus extras. Cost is per finished piece, not per batch — there is no copies field. The button opens a modal: you can quick-add a named consumable from Inventory, or a manual line. The same consumable can be added more than once. If you rename or delete the consumable, the auto line becomes 0.

The profit card takes as materials beads plus extra costs, not beads alone. That is the disagreement with Products. You add thread in the modal: editor profit moves; the Products row does not. You fill hours, rate, overhead, fee and Target margin or Fixed price: Products picks up labour, price, profit and margin, because they read the same local store.

If the fee plus the target margin are at least 100, the margin is refused as impossible and the price shows as —. A .json export does not take extra costs or profit with it.

Extra costs belong to the open editor document, not to the piece. If you open another design from Products, the thread and clasp lines stay those of the current canvas. Profit hours and rate do switch with the piece.

There is no catalogue price list. Bead cost comes from Inventory: what you paid for the whole quantity, not a list price. Invoice import adds grams; it does not copy the invoice's money onto the bead cost.

Cost and profit figures use the Inventory currency. Switching currency changes only the symbol; stored amounts are not converted. The currency you pay for Pro in (EUR, USD or RON) is a separate picker. If you pay for Pro in RON, the piece cost is not in RON unless Inventory is also set to RON.

Studio

Studio is where you organise all your projects. You can create new ones, group them into folders and mark them by the stage they're at. If you have several patterns on the go, Studio keeps them tidy and easy to find.

On the free plan you can save up to 5 projects. If you reach that limit, the projects you already have remain yours. You can open, edit and export them at any time. The limit only applies when you want to create a new one.

Library

The Library holds the designs you have finished. A design arrives here from Studio, when you mark it complete — you cannot save straight to the Library from the editor.

You can group them into categories and subcategories of your own, and each design can be opened, duplicated, sent back to work in progress, or deleted. Colour palettes do NOT live here — they have their own page, Palettes.

Recently deleted

✕ does not destroy the design. It moves it to Recently deleted (/library/deleted) and you can bring it back for 30 days. The Recently deleted button in Library is always there, even when the bin is empty.

The confirm says: the design moves to Recently deleted and you can bring it back for 30 days. One bin, whether you pressed ✕ in Library, Studio or Profile. Clicking outside the dialog does not cancel; Escape does. If that design is open in the editor, it is unlinked; the painted canvas stays.

Restore

Restore puts the full payload back: name, grid, palette, status (in progress or finished), folder. A design deleted from Studio comes back in Studio, not Library. You are not taken to the editor. List position is not kept.

It is kept for exactly 30 days. At 29 days you can still bring it back. At exactly 30 days it has expired. The “Last day” label shows when one day or less remains. Visiting Recently deleted is what purges expired rows — it is not a background job. Until then, an expired tombstone still hides the design from Library and Studio.

Restore does not check the free-plan cap of 5. If you sit at 5, delete one (4 live), save a new one (5 again) and restore the deleted one, you have 6 live designs on the free plan. A deleted design does not count toward the 5: delete one of five and you can save another immediately.

On a first visit, three starter designs appear (Band, Chevron, Diamond), all finished, in Library. They count toward the 5.

Delete forever

Delete forever is the one hard delete. The confirm says it cannot be brought back and disappears from every device. A device that has not synced yet can put the row back in the bin; you see it again and can drop it once more.

From Recently deleted you cannot open, duplicate, export or rename. The name is not an editable field.

Signed out, ✕ still moves the design into the bin. Recovery stays on this browser until you sign in. Opening and renaming from the list need an account; JSON export stays available.

Deleting a folder does not delete designs — they leave the folder and remain. Saved palettes have no bin: delete is immediate. Pattern bookmarks have no bin. Overwriting the editor canvas is not recoverable.

Guest starter copies that vanish at sign-in, when the account already has designs, do not go to Recently deleted. Duplicate copies the app retires itself appear in the same list, with the same Restore / Delete forever buttons, and no label that the app put them there.

After the last live design is deleted, the list stays empty. Starters never grow back, even after the bin expires. Deleting the Beadalia account wipes the live list and both bins on this device. Signing out does not.

Patterns

Beadalia publishes ready-made patterns at Patterns (/patterns). You can browse published originals, open one page, save a bookmark to your Library, and — if entitled — follow it row by row or make an editable copy in the editor.

The published pattern itself is never edited. Start or Open copies that version into your own saved designs.

The hub is titled “Free Bead Patterns”, but Pro patterns appear in the same grid, with a Pro badge. A Pro pattern is not a separate catalogue.

Browsing

Search runs on title, tags, category, collections and descriptions — not the grid. At most 80 characters. Every word must match (AND, not OR). “christmas tree” does not mean every pattern that mentions either word.

The filters are: Fuse beads / Seed beads; Easy / Intermediate / Advanced; Small / Medium / Large. The size chips filter on the catalogue bead size (for example 11/0 or 5 mm), not on how large the piece is. Changing a filter resets the page. There is no free versus Pro filter.

A page holds 24 patterns. The homepage may show 6 featured ones. If no pattern is published, /patterns 404s and the nav link is hidden. Drafts, review and archived slugs 404.

Collections appear as chips on the first, unfiltered page. A collection page is public only if it is published and has at least one currently published pattern; otherwise 404. It has no search, filters or pagination.

A pattern page

The preview picture is public even on a Pro pattern. The cell grid is never drawn on this page. There is no Download, PDF or print of the published pattern here. What Pro sells is the cell data, not the picture.

The facts shown: bead type, size in beads, bead count, colour count, difficulty, and technique if set. Tags are not links. “Beadalia Original” is always shown.

Materials (You will need): if the list is stored on the pattern, everyone sees it, including on a Pro pattern. If a Pro pattern has no stored list, you see only the colour and bead counts, plus a note that the full colour list opens with the pattern for Pro and Lifetime members.

Related patterns: at most 6.

Start, Editor, Save

Start Pattern follows it row by row and saves your progress (it takes you to Follow). Open in Editor makes your own editable copy. The helper text under the buttons says so.

Both put the copy in Studio (in progress), not Library. Pressing again on the same version reopens that copy instead of creating another. A republish as v2 is a second design. If you edit the copy in the editor and then press Start Pattern, you follow the edited copy, not a fresh published original.

Save needs an account, on any plan. It is a bookmark (title and link), not a copy of the grid. A free account can save a Pro pattern and still cannot open its grid. Library's “Saved patterns” strip is links back to the public page.

Free patterns: anyone, including signed out, can Start and Open. Pro patterns: Pro or Lifetime members. Signed out you cannot Save, and after a reload Follow's picker will not let you re-select that saved design. Lifetime has the same rights on Pro patterns as Pro.

The free-plan cap of 5 saved designs is not applied to this copy. A free user at the cap can still Start or Open.

If the editor canvas already has paint, a confirm asks before replacing it. The copy is already saved in Studio before that confirm; if you cancel, the copy stays there, unopened.

After you save from the editor, the origin stamp is gone. Another Open in Editor of the same published version creates a second Studio copy.

Import and Export

Beadalia makes it easy to move your projects between devices or share them with other people.

Importing and exporting projects

A project can be saved as a .json file. It keeps all the information about the design and can later be imported on another computer, or sent to someone else who uses Beadalia.

Importing from PDF

Import takes Beadalia projects, saved as .json from the “Project” button. Patterns bought elsewhere, as PDFs, cannot be loaded: a PDF holds a picture of the pattern, not its data, and rebuilding the grid from an image would fail silently — a nearly-right pattern costs you a week of beading.

If you can select the text with your mouse in a PDF reader, there's a very good chance Beadalia can import it. If the text can't be selected, the pattern is only an image and the app has no way to read it.

Export

A project can be exported in several formats, depending on what you need.

PNG — ideal when you just want an image of the pattern.

PDF — free with an account. Generates a print-ready PDF with the pattern, the colour legend, the word chart and the Beadalia mark. The right choice if you prefer to work from a printed copy.

Shop-branded PDF (Pro) — replaces the Beadalia mark with your logo, colours and cover. This is the document you put on Etsy.

From photo to pattern

If you have a photograph you'd like to turn into a beadwork pattern, Beadalia can generate one automatically. You choose how many colours the app should use, and the result can then be edited in the Editor until it looks exactly the way you want.

Trace

Sometimes automatic conversion isn't the best call. In those cases use Trace, which puts the image in the background and lets you draw over it by hand.

For many projects this gives a cleaner result and far more control over the detail.

Account

You don't need an account to start using Beadalia. Without signing in, all your projects are saved straight into the browser on the device you're working on.

For a lot of people that's enough. That said, if you clear your browser data or switch computers, projects saved locally can't be recovered.

With a Beadalia account

If you do create an account, all your projects sync automatically. You can start a project on your computer, carry on with it on a laptop or phone, and always have the latest changes.

You can sign in with:

• Google
• email and password

Handy shortcuts

As you use the app you'll notice that a lot of actions are much quicker from the keyboard.

You don't have to learn them, but after a while you'll probably find yourself using them without thinking.

Reading the durability data

For every colour, Miyuki publishes an official rating showing how well it holds up over time. The assessment is split into three categories, and each one can carry one of the following marks:

• 0 — no problems under normal use.
• − — changes may occur depending on use or environment.
• X — low durability. Best kept for the right situations.

What each category means

Sun / time. How well the colour stands up to strong light and the passing of time. Some finishes can shift in shade if they're often out in the sun.

Rubbing / skin. Resistance to rubbing or prolonged contact with skin. Probably the most important category if you make bracelets, rings or other jewellery worn daily.

Dry cleaning. How the colour reacts to dry cleaning. Useful mainly if the beads end up embroidered onto clothing.

Nickel (N). Some plated colours contain nickel. They're marked with N and aren't recommended for jewellery in direct, prolonged contact with skin.

How Beadalia groups the colours

To make the information easier to read, Beadalia automatically sorts colours into three groups:

• Durable — a 0 in all three categories.
• Moderate — at least one −.
• Sensitive — at least one X.

In the Catalog, sensitive colours also carry a small white dot on the swatch, so you can spot them at a glance.

Duracoat — tougher, but not indestructible

If you've worked with metallic or dyed beads, you've probably heard of Duracoat. It's a protective layer Miyuki applies over certain finishes to make them more wear-resistant.

The results are noticeable, but it's worth knowing the limits too. Many galvanized colours that would score an X for rubbing come out at − once they have a Duracoat finish.

That's a real improvement, but it doesn't mean they'll match a colour where the pigment is part of the glass itself. Put simply, Duracoat means tougher, not impossible to damage.

How it works out in practice

• All Duracoat colours are classed as Moderate for rubbing.
• Almost every galvanized colour without Duracoat counts as Sensitive.
• Dyed colours can score − or X depending on the finish.
• The toughest of all remain the colours where the pigment is built into the glass — most Opaque and Transparent colours.

If you make jewellery that gets worn daily, the advice is simple:

• for a metallic look, Duracoat is the best choice;
• for maximum durability, go for Opaque or Transparent colours with a 0 in all three categories.

Delica sizes

The same colour code can exist in up to four different sizes. The prefix on the code tells you straight away which one you're looking at.

Not every colour exists in every size, and that's perfectly normal. If a particular shade is missing from one size, it simply means Miyuki doesn't produce it that way.

All the calculations in Beadalia use the real dimensions and weight of the selected size, so the bead counts and estimated grams come out as close to reality as possible.

How peyote rows are counted

If you've used other pattern software, you've probably noticed the row count isn't always the same. The reason is simple: there are two different counting conventions.

Some apps, like Beadographer, treat every pass of the thread as a row. Others, like PlanBead, treat a complete row as two passes — there and back.

Beadalia uses the second convention. In other words, one row in the app is a complete zig-zag line, exactly the way peyote is built.

If you're used to Beadographer's numbering, don't worry. In the Follow page you can switch how the numbering is displayed at any time. Only the row labels change, not the pattern.

The PDF export states the convention used, so there's no confusion when the pattern is shared onwards.

How a peyote pattern starts

It can feel a bit odd on your first project. The first string of beads you thread is actually rows 1 and 2 at the same time.

The lower beads form the first row, the offset ones the second. Only from row 3 do you start adding beads one at a time into the gaps between the existing ones.

Even-count peyote technique (flat)

Below is the working thread path, once, for flat peyote with an even bead count across the width — the version most people learn first. This is not the per-row path in Follow; it is the reference you start from. Odd-count peyote is in the next section. Tubular is not covered here.

The counting convention matches the rest of this guide: the first strand you string is rows 1 and 2 at once; from row 3 you add beads one by one. In the app, that first strand is a single grid row (2 passes = 1 row, like PlanBead).

Odd-count peyote technique (flat)

Below is the first odd-count turn — the move even-count does not have. Until the last bead of row 3, the stitch is the same: pick up one, skip one, through the next. Follow still refuses odd-count peyote (the special turn is not modelled). This is the reference you start from, not the per-row path in Follow.

The turn drawn here is the one-bead method (Artbeads, Odd-Count Peyote Stitch, 2020): through the last low bead, pick up the new one, through the low bead again, back through the new one. We do not draw the figure-8, the thread-catch, the tail method, or the turns on rows 5, 7, … — those are other published methods, and they diverge.

Square stitch technique (flat)

Square stitch builds a grid that looks like loom work, off the loom. Each new bead is stacked on the one below: pick it up, pass through the bead underneath, then back through the new bead so the thread wraps in the gap. The editor's Loom / Square Stitch grid is this layout. The loom needle path (pick up the row, then lock under the warps) is a different stitch and is not drawn here.

Eight steps, matching the published square-stitch diagram sequence (Chris Franchetti Michaels / The Spruce Crafts). The optional reinforce pass through a finished pair of rows is omitted — the source marks it as not shown on the diagrams.

Thread preparation and tension

Nylon beading thread (KO, One-G, Nymo) stretches and relaxes over time. Pre-stretching before you work is standard practice — pull it in sections of roughly 30 cm. If you skip it, the thread relaxes after the piece is finished and gaps open up between the beads. Braided thread (FireLine and similar) does not stretch and does not need this.

On a loom, warp tension and weft tension are two different things. Keep the warp taut while warping. The outer warps get drawn in toward the end beads on every pass, which can steal tension from the centre and is why a piece can pucker when you cut it off the loom.

Signs the tension is too loose

• the piece will not hold its shape.
• gaps appear between beads (especially after unstretched nylon relaxes).
• on a loom, the centre warps go slack or loop.

Signs the tension is too tight

• the work cups, warps or puckers.
• it is stiffer than you intended.
• on a loom, the rows curve and the outer warps draw in.
• when starting flat brick stitch, pulling too tight makes the tail pull through.

About the data

The information in Beadalia comes from the official Miyuki catalog and is kept up to date with the data the manufacturer publishes.

Colour names and durability ratings are taken from the official Miyuki “Color and Durability Chart” (miyuki-beads.co.jp, October 2025). The classification by glass type, finish and colour family follows the structure Miyuki uses.

The HEX values used to display the colours are our own estimates and are indicative only. The swatches in the app are generated renders, not photographs of real beads. Because of that, certain finishes — metallic, AB or lustre — can look different depending on the light.

If you're working on a project where the colour has to be exact, always check against the real beads as well.

MIYUKI and Delica are registered trademarks of MIYUKI Co., Ltd.; this project is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by MIYUKI.

One last thing

Beadalia is built to make working with beads simpler and more enjoyable, whether this is your first project or you've been designing for years.

If you come across something that could be better, or you're missing a feature you'd like to see, I'd love to hear about it. A lot of what's already in the app came from exactly those suggestions.

Happy beading! ❤️

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