Added to my series of Instagram posts recently made for Garland Magazine was a post so big it also became an article! The Battle of the Rings (or Ring Smackdown as it’s otherwise known) is a competition run by Danaca Design jewellery studio in Seattle. This now annual competition was started in 2020 as a way for jewellers to exhibit and connect despite the pandemic, but has grown to include a live exhibition of all the rings in the battle at the new Danaca gallery in Seattle.
If you have read my Garland piece, you will know that I committed to entering a ring into the contest this year, as I basically put it, not to win, but to be more ‘social’ in my use of social media.
Drumroll….
I was juried in!
You can check out my ring and all of the other 63 contenders on the Danaca Design Battle of the Rings / Ring Smackdown 2022 page. Yup, 64 is a LOT of rings.
Follow @danacadesignstudio on the ‘gram and as Dana (of Danaca Design – yes – her name is Dana Cassara…) suggests, follow the #ringsmackdown hashtag to make sure you don’t miss a post once the contest goes live. As I can attest from last year, the pesky algorithm will not always serve you all of the pairings up for vote that day.
Many thanks to jurors Elizabeth Shypertt (curator, formerly of Velvet da Vinci) and Jim Dailing (jeweller and educator) for letting me through. As per another part of my article, I look forward to going out in the first round!
