When jewelry maker Olga Ganoudis watched episodes of the ABC TV series “Lost” in her Wilmington studio, she wasn’t just passing the time – she was doing research.
Ganoudis produced a line of jewelry based on the hit TV show and, even though “Lost” is in reruns, her jewelry still sells on ABC’s Internet storefront.
A fan of the show that chronicled plane crash survivors stuck on a mysterious island, Ganoudis would tape episodes on Wednesday night and watch them the following day while she worked on jewelry, she said.
“I kind of started wondering what I would do if I were stuck on an island,” she said.
The show’s winding plotline was steeped in numerology and Ganoudis thought that, if she were one of the passengers stranded on the island, she would punch important numeric sequences into pieces of metal.
So she did.
Accustomed to working with sterling silver, copper and bronze, Ganoudis created metallic pendants using the numbers and animal symbols characters used to try and piece together the mystery of the island they were marooned on.
After mentioning the jewelry to a friend, whose brother happened to write the music for the series, she sent some pieces to ABC and the studio began selling them online, she said.
“Lost” was very heavy on symbolism, she said, so it made a great subject for jewelry designs. She created about a dozen different pieces and two can still be purchased through ABC’s online store.
Ganoudis even had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii and see the set where “Lost” was filmed.
One thing that came as a surprise to her was how far-reaching the TV show was, she said. She shipped jewelry orders as far away as Europe, South America and Africa and the pieces are still popular among fans.
“It definitely creates conversation,” she said. “There are ‘Lost’ fans everywhere and you can talk about the show for hours and hours.”
But Ganoudis hasn’t unplugged her TV just because her favorite program has run its course. She’s still channel surfing, searching for the next show she can turn into wearable artwork, she said.
