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 quiet, 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 a place where you can drop all the expectations people may have of you, and you are just you. It's a place where you can be authentically you, no matter what that is.

The Hotel Ugly Way

The way something is made matters. More today than ever. We work slowly and intentionally, making every piece entirely by hand-- cut, shaped, soldered, and hammered without automation. Every stone is hand picked by us, we work directly with trusted lapidary artists and mine owners to ensure the authenticity and provenance of every stone we use.

In a world increasingly built around speed, efficiency and perfect reproduction, we choose a different path. Every peice carries the evidence of its one-of-a-kind making--the touch of the tools, the hand of the maker, and the time and attenition poured into it. It's these things give an object its soul -- and that's something a machine simply cannot reproduce.