ARCADIA, Calif. — By a window with a view of a lake, two men hand-stitch a mattress pad in a time-honored manner by passing a foot-long sewing needle back and forth through a frame.

Nearby, a worker stuffs a pillow casing with pure wool while another attaches mattress springs, one by one, to a grid.

But this is not a quaint bedding museum here. It's the factory of Vivetique Sleep Systems, a company that makes mattresses, box springs, pillows, comforters and other sleep products the old-fashioned way with natural fabrics and stuffings.

There isn't a speck of polyure-thane foam, by far the most common filling for modern mattresses, in Vivetique's 31,000-square-foot factory across from a rock quarry (thus the manmade lake) in a nondescript industrial park that includes manufacturers, public storage units and a couple of strip clubs.

"Foam is a dirty word around here," quipped Scott Carwile, 47, who co-owns the company with his twin brother, Steve.

Although the Carwiles say they are devoted to ecological causes, their decision to specialize in natural materials has more to do with making a name for themselves in a highly competitive industry.

"You can't directly take on Goliath with his marketing money if all you have is a pebble. We had to pick a good, strong niche," Steve Carwile said.

It seems to be working. Vivetique's sales shot up 36 percent last year to about $6 million at a time when the mattress industry is in a bit of a rut: The number of mattresses sold last year rose 1.5 percent, according to the International Sleep Products Association. Revenue was up 7.5 percent, with the increase reflecting an upswing in expensive mattresses. Still, Vivetique is dwarfed by industry leader Sealy Corp.'s annual revenue of more than $1.5 billion.

David Perry, bedding editor of the weekly Furniture/Today trade publication, said the trend toward natural mattresses, while small, seemed genuine.

"There have been isolated cases of natural being tried in the industry over the years without much success," Perry said. "But now you have Whole Foods and hybrid cars out there. This will probably be a bigger and bigger movement as we go forward."

Natural often means high priced, and Vivetique is no exception.

While the average retail mattress cost is about $400, according to the international sleep products group, Vivetique's queen mattresses start at $1,200 and go up to $10,000.

Much of the price premium is because of the hand labor involved in making a mattress of natural materials that can't withstand assembly-line machinery. While it takes a modern factory about eight minutes to make a mattress, Steve said, it takes Vivetique about 45.

The high prices probably haven't hurt the company. "The demand for premium product has been increasing," said Ryan Trainer, executive vice president of the sleep products group. "As people get older, they are encountering sleeping problems. Getting a good mattress is a cheaper way of dealing with it in the long run than drugs."

On top of that, novelty sells when it comes to bedding. "It's like people who buy a new car every couple of years," he said. "There is an allure, a sexiness in a new solution in sleep."