fiat lux Design Competition
Our Past Winners
Each year, the Fiat Lux Design Competition reveals a new constellation — artists whose work reshapes what adornment can mean, and whose visions now live in the bones of our brand.
9th Annual competition
SQUINT GAMES
Winner: Goodluck Handmade
Do you see a hexagon or a cube? An exploration of the liminial space between geometry & the handmade. Meticulously hand cut black jade, mother of pearl & black pearl inlayed to form a seamless infinite geometrical optical illusion. Accented with bezel set two trillion white diamonds.
8th annual competition
Snakes Alive
Winner: Daisy San Luis
A lover’s eye, carved in keshi pearl and framed in yellow gold and black diamond, promises: I only have eyes for you. It rests snugly in the coils of a golden serpent, whose own white diamond eyes keep watch—protective, eternal, and just a little dangerous.
7th annual competition
A FOOT OF GOLD
Winner: Kimi Kaplowitz
Where The Wild Things Are: Fungi, fawn guy, foot funguy. Explore the mossy forest world of an Oregoneon Croc, led by your excited tour guide. Cast in bronze from real psilocybe mushrooms collected on the Oregon coast, handcarved in sterling silver & set with inverted garnets and green cubic zirconia.
6th annual competition
Immaculate Deception
Winner: DMD
A funerary boat cradled by a ring-shank-as-uterus, forged in 18k gold and sterling silver. At its heart, a rose-cut diamond marks the passage of Pope Joan—Iones in life, Ioannes in death. A relic of transformation, concealment, and radical becoming.
5th annual competition
Nor Hell a Fury
Winner: Ali Munn
A poison ring forged in sterling and 18k gold, its hidden chamber cradling a miniature ship, a skull, and a message. Inspired by Jeanne de Clisson, the 14th-century noblewoman turned pirate queen, who traded silk for steel and grief for fire.
4th annual competition
Trash
Winner: Daisy San Luis
When the world gets feral, you don’t reach for a nail—you wear the glove. Cast in brass, tipped with a forged nail so it won’t shatter when you slice through the noise. Embedded with diamonds like war trophies, it’s not just protection—it’s declaration.
3rd annual competition
Memento Mori
Winner: Fiat Lux
A custom coffin cut white sapphire in 18k yellow gold with a woman, a skeleton, and a devil — symbols for birth, death — the afterlife engraved into the band & ruby pavé underneath the sapphire.
2nd annual competition
Knives Out
Winner: Nick Potash
Sterling silver, fold-out, hand-engraved front and back. Both sides etched with the Bard’s warning: One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ round your eyes. Carved brass accents frame the edge. A relic of mortality, rebellion, and the dream that cuts both ways.
1st annual competition
Great Black Diamond Ring Off
Winner: Digby & Iona
A black diamond burns at the center like a secret kept too long — set in clawed gold, it’s not asking to be understood.