Brilliantly Birmingham 2009: Contemporary Jewellery Festival

Dazzling designs by some of the world's best contemporary jewellery artists will take centre stage at this year's Brilliantly Birmingham, the annual celebration of contemporary jewellery which marks its 10th anniversary in 2009.

Since 1999 when a group of local designer makers gathered together to promote themselves and their work under a single brand the event has grown into an international contemporary jewellery festival attracting designer makers across the globe.

In its celebratory year, the programme includes two exhibitions at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery - FLUX, the annual selling show which attracts international entries from new and emerging designers, and a Tenth Anniversary Retrospective featuring the work of seven designers whose work has headlined previous festivals.

They include this year's profile designer Mikaela Lyons, whose own surreal illustrations inspired by old travel photographs are digitally manipulated to form the base for a number of colourful body adornment pieces and smaller scale jewellery.

They are mounted onto oxidised copper settings and covered in laser cut acrylic to create fashionable, high impact and theatrical pieces.