We're America's Cleanest Pottery.

But What Makes Our Business So Clean?

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At Sunset Hill Stoneware, we call ourselves America's Cleanest Pottery for a reason. When you purchase Sunset Hill Stoneware products, not only are you showing dedication to a product that is lead-free and responsibly sourced—you're also showing that you care about the well-being of the people who made your pottery with their own two hands.

Many potteries claim they're committed to leaving Earth better than they found it; but that takes effort most aren't able to make. That commitment involves protecting the people both inside and outside of our shop, and the planet we call home.

It's a dirty little secret the pottery industry is reticent to admit: Potters can develop diseases like cancer and silicosis over the course of decades working in pottery studios that aren't kept clean. Nicknamed potter's rot, silicosis occurs when potters inhale tiny silica particles, trapping them in their lungs. The disease can cause everything from shortness of breath to emphysema and can lead to potters having a lower life expectancy than other professions. Along with heavy lifting and dark, damp, cramped conditions that are prevalent in the industry, it's no wonder that pottery often hurts those who love it most at other studios.

Sunset Hill Stoneware has been taking steps to protect our potters for years. We use a custom HVAC system with robust MERV-13 and HEPA filters to trap silica dust before it becomes airborne. We change these filters regularly, ensuring that our crew can come to work safely and still go for a run or bike ride after work.

Learn our innovations to protect our team on our blog!

PROTECTING PEOPLE, INSIDE OUR POTTERY AND OUT

Many of our competitors take steps to prevent silica inhalation in their shops. They usually have their potters use dust masks and personal filtration systems at their work stations. Sunset Hill Stoneware's potters don't have to do either of those things when they sit down to work every day because we trap the dust long before it's a threat.

Our co-owner, Duane Dunsirn developed our one-of-a-kind HVAC system to protect the team when they're at work. No other pottery company in the United States has a system like ours. This unique system has several benefits for our team and our products:

  • Keeps silica dust out of our team members' lungs with a central filtration system
  • Protects guests who come to visit us
  • Maintains a constant temperature to keep everyone comfortable year-round
  • Helps our pottery dry consistently, no matter what the weather is like outside
  • Automatically adjusts to maintain its temperature and humidity settings immediately

We've studied OSHA's regulations in designing the systems we use today. In order to stay within the law's strict limit so our team members don't have to wear masks or risk illness, we commission an independent environmental consulting firm to conduct onsite monitoring. During our most recent test, we not only met OSHA's air quality standards—we were below them.

THE PAPERLESS MRP SYSTEM BEHIND YOUR LOGO MUGS

In addition to keeping the air in our shop clean, Sunset Hill Stoneware is paperless. We use a state-of-the-art MRP system to track every order as we make your custom stoneware mugs and steins. That removes thousands of pounds of paper waste from our office and shop each year. Digital monitors throughout our shop and a software system in our office let everyone at the company see where each order is without a single sheet of paper. This unique system comes to us courtesy of HawkPoint Technologies.

Sunset Hill Stoneware Pottery Facility

We're proud to be paperless because it helps us reduce waste, save time and organize ourselves. When you order your mugs from Sunset Hill Stoneware, you'll receive digital copies of every document you need. It may not seem like much to save a few pieces of paper for your order, but with thousands of customers, it keeps thousands of pages out of our landfills year after year.

We also use custom packaging that eliminates our need to use packing paper or peanuts. Your mugs will stay safely in place until the moment you open the box, with an extremely low risk of breakage during the trip. We don't use Styrofoam, and we don't need extra paper to pack our boxes either. We can breathe easy knowing we're reducing our impact on the planet while keeping your logo mugs safe.

CLEANEST POTTERY IN AMERICA

When guests visit our plant, they often notice how spotless our facility is. The floors, work tables and shelves in our shop are so clean we could eat off of them—and a few of us have offered to prove it. Most of our direct competitors can't say as much.

Not only do all members of our shop crew dedicate time to cleaning up; we also have a cleaning crew whose sole job is to come in every night and scour facility from top to bottom. This crew cleans for eight hours straight. Not only does their work keeping our shop tidy improve our morale, it also helps us keep track of the thousands of mugs going through our shop each day.

At Sunset Hill Stoneware, we're proud of the efforts we take to stay clean inside and out. We're always looking to innovate and improve on our state-of-the-art systems so we can continue to call ourselves America's Cleanest Pottery.

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