Using Delica Beads

I went to B&B a few days ago to buy some purple seed beads for a rose. There were not any royal purple regular seeds beads, so I looked to the Delica beads. I've not used them before and had no idea why the cost more. So here is what I found out:

Delica beads are a specific brand of bead made by the Miyuki Company in Japan. They are cylindrical in shape and have very thin walls, as opposed to the rounder, thick-walled seed bead. They line up perfectly in loom and in off-loom stitches such as Brick or Peyote, with the thin walls and large holes allowing for multiple thread passes through each bead. Delica beads are so precise and they make any pattern line up perfectly and give a clean, crisp finish to any project. The beads are usually of excellent quality, creating fewer culls when you are working and therefore are cost effective (Taken from About.com).

So for this rose, I used Delica beads for the petals and regular seeds beads for the leaves. You can really see the difference between the beads. I love the way this rose turned out. The only thing I didn't know was that I had to use more Delica beads to make the same size flower when using regular seed beads. Even though Delica beads cost twice as much as regular seeds beads, I will definitely use them again.