Our adventure in Manufacturing started with the building of a Straw-Bale house in Lincoln Nebraska.  Because of the lack of available green building materials in 1999, we formulated a plan to start a business that could bring these materials to the Midwest, and Straw Sticks & Bricks was founded in 2001.  Through our years of working with some great green materials, we began to look at the bigger picture, or as it were, the smaller picture: local manufacturing. We saw several US based manufacturers of various materials come and go, and knew that most green building materials were coming from overseas.

Slate-ish was initially discovered by accident - the way all good ideas come about, it seems. Our work installing Richlite countertops left us with a LOT of scrap material, and a chance encounter with a dropped piece gave us an idea of how to use this scrap.  Once we cut and hand-chiseled this material, we knew we had a winner.  

We pushed to source additional raw material in 2014, and discovered just how much scrap was being created. We automated some splitting in 2018 to increase our production capacity, reduce prices, and save Josh’s wrists and hands from missed hammer swings.

We continue to push for better production methods, and to present product improvements for our customers. Every day is a new discussion about how to build our business in a way that diverts waste, utilizes American-made tooling and raw materials, and helps keep small manufacturing in the USA.