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Lily says: My
relationship with Miyuki Delica beads goes way back. I was first exposed to
these wonderful beads in 1988, when I worked at General Bead in San Francisco.
At that time, to my recollection, General Bead was the only distributor of
Miyuki beads in the United States. Later, when I moved to Seattle and opened
"Sound City Bead," we became the first shop in town to sell the Delicas. I had
the honor of turning some of Seattle's most prominent bead artists on to these
beads, for the first time. This was back in the early 1990's. Boy, have things
changed since then! Now these beads have become a staple of any bead business,
whether it be retail or wholesale. There are now over 1000 colors available. But
miraculously, though prices have indeed fluctuated over the years, the quality
of these beads have not.
Ironically, now, here in Florence Italy, I find myself again in the role of
"pioneer" when it comes to these beads. To my knowledge, BeadedLily is the only
shop selling Delica's in the region of Tuscany, and one of very few shops
selling them in all of Italy. That puts us in a unique position. The good news
is, once a beader tries these beads for the first time, they usually become
hooked! The bad news is, there are way more colors available to purchase than we
can either fit in our store, or currently afford.
Because of this, we have decided to let this line grow slowly but steadily, as
customer demand warrants. We hope to add at least twenty new colors this fall.
We are well aware that our American customers can find these beads stateside, in
abundance. However, many of our European customers cannot find them easily
within Europe, and when they do find them here, they are often at very high
prices. So, it is you, our potential European customer, to whom we especially
seek to please with this particular offering. By supporting our efforts and
ordering these wonderful beads from us, you will help us to increase our supply
and therefore, you will in-turn have access to a larger selection of these beads
for your creations. You will also be supporting a European Union based business,
while saving on shipping, customs charges, etc. In other words, your keeping it
local! In return, we pledge to keep our prices as reasonable as possible, in
order to help give European beaders the opportunity to work with, what I feel,
are the best seed beads known to man!* If you find other colors elsewhere that
you would like us to add to our collection, please let us know, and we will do
our best to obtain them promptly.
*These beads are superior because of the beautiful colors and finishes they are
available in, their consistent size and shape, (which allows the beader to use
virtually every bead in the bag,) and their large hole size, which makes them
perfect for all on and off-loom bead-weaving techniques, as well as for basic
stringing projects. If you are new to these beads, try them...you'll love them!
