The latest vogue for accessorising has married two of platinum's divergent uses - ocular surgery and dazzling jewellery.

Experts in the Netherlands have developed eyeball jewellery, or "JewelEye" as it is being called, using an innovative surgical technique to implant a special type of platinum.

The jewels, which measure just 3.5 mm across, are inserted directly into the eye, and have already been snapped up by six women and one man in the Netherlands.

The £330 operation is being performed by Dutch eye surgeons Dr Gerritt Mellis and Dr Bob Ververs.

Dr Mellis, who is director of the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery, said the surgery was proving popular, and is completely safe.

"There are a lot of people who want this surgery done. The idea came from some research we were doing on eye pressure. We realised we could put jewellery inside the eye's outer membrane, so we thought it might be fun," he explained.

The technique involves making a small incision in the cornea, into which the jewellery is inserted.

The platinum jewel is then accepted by the eye, in a procedure which takes just ten minutes.

Eventually the jewel becomes part of the eye, with blood vessels even able to grow over it - those unhappy with the look can also have the same surgery to remove the jewel.