Our new Tex 400 C-Lon® bead cord is now in stock. It's a nice heavyweight 0.8mm stringing cord which can also be used for micro macrame. 75 lb breaking strength should guarantee long-lasting creations. We're starting with 16 colors and will add more if there are requests.



Our ad for the 4th Mmmm... Miyuki Contest is on page 29 of the new Beadwork Magazine. We've been short-staffed and extremely busy the past few weeks so as usual I have procrastinated and do not yet have the rules posted. I'll try to have them up by this weekend.

We're expecting an air shipment of Delicas in the near future. That shipment also includes the latest Miyuki kits. They're listed on the shopping cart; let us know if you want any reserved.

Speaking of which, please note that the shopping cart Wait List is not a reservation system. When you add an item to the Wait List, it means you will get an email as soon as it is in stock. However it does not reserve or pre-order the items. If we know an item is on an inbound shipment we are happy to preorder it for you. In general this is not necessary because we bring in more than enough (usually 25- 100 kgs per color for non-Delica beads). But for items like kits, and new beads like the 15/0 Delicas which are very slow to produce, asking us to reserve some for you before they arrive is a good idea.

Our April sea shipment has arrived. We will be unpacking it tomorrow so will only process urgent next day and 2-day orders tomorrow. We should resume normal shipping on Friday. This shipment includes a boat load (sorry, the pun was irresistable!) of new 15/0s and 15/0 hex cuts. The full shipment list is here.

We have a limited selection of the new 15/0 Delicas left. I'll post a note when we have information about receiving more.

The precision cut 15/0 Delicas arrived on Thursday afternoon. Miyuki sent them in 500 gram bags so we're still working on repackaging. That should be done this weekend and on Monday we will start to ship.

Important: I haven't had time to look at all the orders, but I'm 99% certain that we now have a lot more orders* for the 15/0 Delicas than we have stock. We're already talking to Miyuki about getting more as soon as possible. We'll fill orders in sequence and when we run out, we'll turn the remaining orders into preorders and let you know when we expect to fill them.

*Some of the orders came in earlier by email or fax, and since we haven't processed them yet, the shopping cart doesn't know that those beads are already reserved. By Monday it'll be accurate again, but in the meantime it will continue to show beads available which in fact are not—sorry!

Lots of shipments coming. Our April sea shipment is due in at the end of this month or early in May. A list of the contents is here.

An air shipment is due in shortly which contains lots of Miyuki kits and new 15/0 Delicas. Most of the 15/0 Delicas are already pre-ordered so for now these will be in short supply.

Miyuki is currently packing another air shipment for us which should arrive in a couple of weeks, and they're also working on our next sea shipment which will arrive at the end of May or in early June.

We have ordered some new Miyuki kits and will have those listed on the shopping cart next week. Here's one of the bracelets:

Starting later today, we will be offering half packs of all 4,000+ Miyuki beads in our inventory. So 250 grams packs will be available in 125 gram half packs, etc. Note that there will be a surcharge to cover our cost for bags, labor, and labels, and for the next few weeks or so as we start repackaging, please assume that orders which include half packs will take an extra day or two to process.

This service should be particularly helpful to established bead stores wanting to expand their selection of Miyuki beads while keeping initial costs down, and to new bead stores investing in startup inventory.

We will also offer occasional special package deals. I'm thinking in particular of collections of new Miyuki beads that come in which will be available as a set of half packs. Details as we make final decisions.

Speaking of new beads, the remaining new Delica colors should arrive on Thursday along with lots of out of stock Miyuki kits.

Mmmm...Miyuki! Contest no. 1 is over. Photos and more info on the Contest 1 page.

Busy! If I were a juggler, I'd have colored balls, plates, pins, scarves, and the kitchen sink in the air. Maybe with a blindfold on.

We are unpacking the March sea shipment from Miyuki. Hoping to finish by the end of the day, so today we'll only be shipping out overnight and 2-day orders. Should be back to regular shipping on Monday.

There's a new color of C-Lon bead cord available, CLC-M Mint. It will replace the Mint Julep color. The new Mint is a softer green and we prefer it. The Mint Julep is marked down while it lasts.

With the help of the Miyuki design department and the Caravan staff, we have finished judging the first Mmmm....Miyuki! contest. All I can say is, it's hard to choose! I will be emailing the winners this weekend and hopefully will have time to prepare images for the website so you can see some pretty beadwork.

Eight of the new 11/0 Delicas arrived a couple of days ago and we should have the remaining 55 colors available in a couple of weeks.

A long while back we asked Miyuki if they could produce smaller Delicas. After many months of work, they told us that it was possible and we placed an order. These new 15/0 precision-cut Delicas (DBS) are now in production with an initial run of 127 colors. We don't have a delivery date yet—like regular 15/0s, these are slow to produce—but all the colors are now listed on our wholesale shopping cart. If you'd like to reserve some or all of them, please send us an email or add the ones you'd like to the Wait List. As soon as we have some delivery information, I'll post it here.

And speaking of delivery, the 63 new colors of 11/0 Delicas should be shipping to us at the end of this month.

Eight new colors of C-Lon Micro Cord will arrive Friday. There's a listing of the colors here. And more colors coming in the not-too-distant future.

No other news for today, other than the slush that is falling from the sky and coating Portland. What a mess! C'mon, springtime!

Delica Beaded Jewelry is a new book by Alice Korach, the founding editor of Bead and Button magazine. It features some lovely projects, all using 10/0 Delicas. The retail price is $14.99 and we have discounted pricing for wholesale customers and bead stores. Lots of photos and very detailed instructions. It's now available on our shopping cart.

Here's a scan showing the projects: