By Bridget Kelly
Two Ormiston Senior College students believe their new palette art business is some cutting edge stuff.
Harjot Singh Sodhi 18, and Ethan Thompson, 17, created the business for the Young Enterprises Scheme which is part of their business class.
“It’s a chance to have a business before you even leave school, so we were quite excited about that,” said Sodhi.
The palette art business, called Cutting Edge Enterprise, prides itself only being completely customizable and sustainable.
The duo use up-cycled timber and damaged cans of spray paint to create their works of art, which sell for $15-$30.
“We here at Cutting Edge truly believe that we have a solution to New Zealand’s rapidly increasing timber waste,” said Sodhi.
Their customisations include logos, symbols and texts. You can choose to have a spray painted stencil, or an LED lit piece.
Their biggest competition is a group of Pakuranga students, who they heard were making palette furniture, and Industrial Design NZ who sell palette art, but at a higher price.
Their end goal is to make around $1000 before tax, and Sodhi believes that they will make that before September.
Sodhi and Thompson have made enough already to buy themselves a table saw, which will cut the production time down to an hour.
They are also looking at hiring more students to help them keep up with future demand, and allow them to stay on top of their school work.
“We started off selling to just students so far, and we’re thinking of expanding into the corporate market like offices, schools,” said Sodhi.
They have sold seven in the two weeks they’ve been operating, despite Thompson battling tonsillitis.
You can view and request palette art on their Instagram cutting.edgeent or their Facebook page Cutting Edge enterprise.
Both boys want to continue their business once they finish school at the end of the year, and are looking into careers in finance, investment and real estate.
