About Bright New Gems
The Bright New Gems initiative was founded in 2005 for International Jewellery London (IJL) and quickly became the ‘must visit’ exhibit for visitors and exhibitors alike. It has gone on to become the foremost, UK industry mentoring programme and showcase for new, emerging talent.
Today the BNGs are selected from final year BA and MA students from UK colleges and universities by a stellar panel of judges from media and industry, and leading retailer John Lewis & Partners. The BNGs showcase their collections at the Retail Jeweller Festival in March.
To date the BNGs programme has enabled ninety-two BNG designers to showcase their work to the industry, to retailers and opinion formers. Designers such as Pippa Small, Fernando Jorge, Ruth Tomlinson, Tomasz Donocik, and, more recently, Zeemou Zeng, all started their journey as a Bright New Gem and have gone on to carve out very successful award-winning careers.
The team leads this ‘not for profit’ mentoring programme – liaising with universities, colleges, and judges, as well as industry supporters such as The National Association of Jewellers, The Benevolent Society, Retail Jeweller and sponsors including The Rock Hound, and Jewel Ads.
In 2022, John Lewis joined the initiative as a Retail Associate – adding an exciting opportunity for the winning designers to create an exclusive, debut, demi-fine collection for sale in-store and online.
BNG news is covered extensively in UK industry titles as well as in the Financial Times, Town & Country, The Regional Press and international trade titles such as JZA South Africa.
Images by Rebecca Maddock &Worn Studio
Are you a future Bright New Gem?
Bright New Gems, the renowned industry mentoring platform that promotes the best in new talent. Could you be one of our next winners? Our next round of applications opens on 1 June 2025.
The Bright New Gems scheme for graduating British BA and MA designers has been curated by Jennifer Hall-Thompson and the late founder Suzanna Hammond since its launch at International Jewellery London (IJL) 2005 and is now recognised as the foremost industry mentoring programme and showcase for new, emerging talent. If you would like to find out more about Bright New Gems please contact Jennifer.
Hilary Alexander said:
“Think of emerging jewellery talent and it is almost impossible not to immediately think of Bright New Gems. For nearly two decades, this pioneering platform has championed a new way to identify, mentor and promote the next generation of young stars, poised to dazzle the international jewellery market with their innovative creativity and 21st-century mindsets.”