About

I am Hamed. I was born in Iran, and on the 29th of July 2017 I landed in Britain with two suitcases and a head full of plans. I have been here ever since: first as a student at Birmingham's School of Jewellery, now as a British citizen, always as a jeweller.

These days I live and work in Birmingham. I spend my days in the world of fine jewellery and watches, and almost every other waking hour in my own studio in the Jewellery Quarter, designing, modelling, making, teaching and building. Some of what I build is made of gold. Some of it is made of software. The best of it is made of both.

This blog is my long letter, written in two directions. Backwards, to the boy in Iran who dreamed about making beautiful things and wondered if he ever would. And forwards, to my family, to the children I hope will one day read these pages, and to anyone standing where I once stood: at the start of a long road in a new country, with empty hands and a full heart.

What you will find here is honest weekly notes from an immigrant maker's life in England. The bench and the studio. The setbacks and the small victories. The odd page written at 4:49 in the morning, because that is when the truest thoughts arrive.

Why "Under British Skies"? Because that is where all of it happens: under skies I crossed half the world to stand beneath.