WEBSITE DOWN!

Dear valued customers & blog readers,

It saddens me to inform you that the Sunshine INdustries website has had a breach in security. I have been in contact with the RCMP, PayPal, my web host and my webmaster. It appears that an outside person or persons changed the Paypal button code on my website to send any payments made by customers to their own email address. They appear to have hacked directly into my website to do so.

Paypal assures us that no credit card or financial information is involved in such a breach. No credit card/financial information is stored on the Sunshine INdustries website at anytime. PayPal flagged this problem immediately and were watching the account even before I contacted them.

I felt that it was important that you all should know. This only affects people who had logged into the website as a customer in the past. Each of those customers has been contacted directly. Just having visited the website will not affect you in any way.

The website has been taken down until further investigation can take place and better security installed. You may still email me to order and it is safe for me to invoice you directly via email to pay via PayPal.

Many of you are family, friends and new-found friends. I thank you for your patronage and hope that you will continue to support an independent artisan, trusting that I will keep your best interests at heart during your shopping experience.
Sincerely,
Dawn

Re-inventing Vintage

My aunt sent me a vintage necklace that she never wore (but cherished) to be re-invented in a more modern, wearable way. I forgot to take a photo of it "before", but it was a lot like this one...

except with these beads:

Not a real challenge for me since I LOVE these colours!

(Plus I really love my Aunt. I spent a lot of summer evenings shelling peas on her deck at the farm. Great memories.) I actually have many of the same tastes as my Aunt does. We are both fond of antiques... or antique-looking. So... I was after a vintage look that would be less boring, basically.

I went on a search of my studio for components that would go with what she gave me. Here are the extras I added to the mix:

I also considered these:

LOVE the flower idea, but for some reason, they just didn't jive. Perhaps they'll become pins instead.

So here is what I came up with.

I fooled around with the chains and balancing the right amount of glass beads with the brass for quite awhile.

The butterfly was the first component I picked. It just was right.

It needed some modifications, as there was no way 5 strands would look good with this size of glass bead. Three hooks were removed and some grinding/sanding was necessary so that you would never know they had been there.

Next, the washer. It all began with a very plain brass washer. With a little stamping, (on both sides), it became more spectacular. Now it belonged with the butterfly.

Oh - and 2 more holes were added to hang the strands from.

Having several of the original beads left, I realized that this beauty needed some accessories.

The bracelet was actually what I had put together for the top strand of the necklace, but it proved to be too heavy. So... a bracelet it became! It was fate...

At the very last minute, after having taken ALL of my photos and starting my blog, I saw that there was one lonely green glass bead left over. What to do... what to do...

Much better!

I hope she likes it...

Happiness creates sunshine whenever you go.

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest
aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their
beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
~Louisa May Alcott

Dawn Lawrence Floen
Sunshine INdustries
http://www.sunshineindustries.ca
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