Story

The Story Behind "Hotel Ugly"

The name Hotel Ugly came to me in a dream, shortly after my father passed away. In the midst of grief, I was drawn- unexpectedly- to making jewelry. It became a deeply personal and spiritual practice: a mix of creativity and ritual to process what I was feeling. 

The word Hotel is drawn from the aviation phonetic alphabet- my father was a recreational pilot, and using a piece of that world felt like honoring him in a quite, coded way. Ugly felt like the perfect contrast. Jewelry is expected to be pretty, polished and flawless-- but grief, healing and art are rarely so neat. I loved the juxtaposition. 

Hotel Ugly is where imperfection meets meaning, where beauty is shaped through loss, labor and love. It's a reminder that something beautiful can emerge from the raw, the real, and the unexpected. It's a space where memory, craft, and emotion collide.