Meet Jami Wells

Just seven months into a furniture apprenticeship, Ja'mi Wells, 19, has scooped the Furniture Industry Training Organisation’s (FITO) Top Furniture Apprentice Award. Ms Wells is doing an apprenticeship with Design Mobel, an award winning flexible slat bed and bedroom furniture manufacturer based in Tauranga. Her innovative set of three drawers won the solid wood category and the supreme award from among16 competitors in FITO’s annual competition.

“I’m pretty stoked to win,” says Ms Wells. “The competition is a great chance to think outside the square. When I decided to enter I just sat down with my pencil and drew. I wanted to do something different. This is what came out.”

She made the unit out of solid Rimu and solved a few technical problems along the way.
“One of the challenges was to see if it was going to balance. I made the drawers offset towards the right to create a floating effect but I had to decrease the size of the drawers as they went up. There is also the impression of a pole going up through the centre; to keep a balanced effect I added the handles in line with the pole.”

Rod Carron, one of three awards’ judges and industry experts says that Ms Well’s entry drew the immediate attention of all who entered the display room at Vita New Zealand Ltd, Auckland, where the judging was held.
“It’s great to see a woman win. Her design stood out among all the entries, and they were all of exceptional quality,” says Mr Carron.
“We thought last year’s awards had set the benchmark but this year they raised the bar even further. Furniture has been with us for centuries so it’s very hard to design something original. Ja’imi did that.”
Mr Carron says that innovative design excellence in manufacture, and export is the way for New Zealand’s furniture industry to stay alive and well.

Furniture making is still an unusual career for women. Ms Wells says that being one of two female trade employees in a company with over 65 male employees is, however, not too difficult, and she enjoys building on her natural abilities.
“I love the work,” she says. “I’ve been picking up hammers and nailing wood ever since I was little. My brother works with timber as well. I used to steal his timber and spend hours making things.”

During her final year at Mt Maunganui College Ms Wells did a Gateway programme, which involved work experience at Design Mobel. She had followed woodwork throughout her years at secondary school so a furniture apprenticeship was just the next career step.

With three years to go before she completes her apprenticeship Ms Wells is not looking much further than the next stage in her training – learning to operate large factory machinery. Longer term she would like to run her own business but for now she is happy to stay on the factory floor and learn with an innovative company that is expanding into new markets overseas.

Design Mobel

Design Mobel designs, manufactures and markets beds and bedroom furniture suites: Your Bodyfit Sleep Systems, including flexible slat frames; Bodyfit mattresses; Bodyfit overlays and Bodyfit Pillows. The company employs over 65 staff with a range of ages, and has four furniture apprentices at any given time. Staff numbers are growing as the company moves into international markets. Design Mobel exports 60% of their product overseas. Markets include Australia and the United States, Hong Kong.

The company uses sustainable NZ indigenous timbers. They are committed to sustainable practices and are one of the few furniture manufacturers in the world to hold both international accreditations for quality (ISO 9001) and environmentally sustainable manufacturing (ISO 14001). For every bed or furniture suite sold, Design Mobel plants a native tree through their Donate-a-Tree Programme.