Interactive Jewelry Design
at The CMD Ring Bar

Stacking rings high and proud has been a signature CMD aesthetic for years. I've always loved that rings can be mixed and matched in seemingly endless ways, combining different shapes, widths, metals and finishes until the stack feels completely your own. From our incredibly comfortable square rings to substantial bands and all sorts of little stacking pieces in between, there have always been plenty of ways to play.

What Is Interactive Jewelry Design?

Years ago, that idea inspired what we started calling "interactive design" at The CMD Ring Bar. Rather than choosing only from pre-designed ring stacks, clients could play with individual rings and put different combinations together themselves. You could move things around, try something unexpected, swap one metal for another and watch the entire stack change.

It was jewelry design you could participate in. You weren't designing a ring from scratch, but you were making all of those little decisions that turned a group of individual rings into a stack that felt distinctly yours.

Building a Personalized Ring Stack

One of the things I love most about stacking rings is that there isn't one right combination. Yellow gold, rose gold, sterling silver and oxidized silver can all live together. Different widths don't need to match, and sometimes a substantial band looks even better sitting beside something incredibly narrow.

The same goes for shape. Square rings can be layered together or mixed with other forms, and a stack doesn't need to be perfectly symmetrical to feel balanced. In fact, I usually find the combinations with a little variation much more interesting.

Mixing Metals, Finishes and Ring Widths

Playing with different metals is one of the easiest ways to make a ring stack feel personal. You might start with mostly silver and add one yellow gold ring for warmth, combine gold with oxidized silver for stronger contrast, or mix several finishes throughout the stack.

Widths matter, too. Instead of lining up seven rings that are exactly the same size, try putting a wider band beside something narrow and changing the rhythm as you move through the stack. The goal isn't perfect coordination. It's finding the combination that looks and feels right on your hand.

The Ring Bar Then and Ring Stacking Now

The CMD Ring Bar has taken different forms over the years, and the version pictured and described in this original post from 2017 belongs to an earlier chapter of CMD, when we had a storefront on Valencia Street in San Francisco. The location may have changed, but the idea behind The Ring Bar hasn't. It's always been about giving you the chance to play, experiment and see what happens when you start putting unexpected rings together.

Today, you can experience the Ring Bar in Asbury Park during scheduled Open Hours and at select Pop-Up Events. It's still one of my favorite ways to help someone build a stack because you can try on combinations you might never have considered one ring at a time. If you want to know where to find us next, I've put together a guide to all the ways you can experience CMD in person, from Open Hours and Pop-Ups to Appointments, Reconstruction parties and even helping to bring CMD to your own city.

That spirit of interactive design also shows up whenever we're playing with a client's existing CMD collection, building a new stack or figuring out what should come next. Your rings don't have to be purchased together, and your stack certainly doesn't have to stay the same forever. Add something new, rearrange what you already have or introduce a metal you never thought you'd wear. That's part of the fun.

If you've built a CMD stack of your own, share it with us on Instagram. I still love seeing the combinations you come up with and all the different ways these rings become yours.

Happy stacking,
Colleen

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.

Published: March 23, 2017
Updated: August 13, 2026