How we make our products

Locally made greeting cards and gift tags

When I launched For Me By Dee in 2013, my main product was greeting cards, designed for any occasion and featuring loveable animal characters from around the world.

I spent quite some time researching potential printers. Because I'm based in Melbourne, I wanted a local printer that offered printing on recycled or sustainably-grown paper. This was no mean feat, because in addition to being environmentally friendly, I didn’t want to compromise on the quality and integrity of my watercolour artwork.

Luckily, I found Print Together – an independent printer based in Victoria. I loved their philosophy and commitment to environmentally-friendly printing. In those early days I would travel to their factory in Clifton Hill to pick up my box of freshly printed cards. It was great to be able to connect and meet the printers who had been a part of the process. I have been printing with Calan and his team ever since.

Seeing my artwork on a product was surreal. What a wonderful opportunity I now had to share my artwork in the form of greeting cards, or as I like to refer to them, as small, affordable pieces of art.

Nearly 10 years on, Calan and the team are still printing my greeting cards as well as our gift tags, wholesale catalogues and packaging embellishments. The only change? I no longer travel to pick up my greeting cards — there are just too many boxes thanks to our growing range of characters and products!

Giclee’ art prints

When I decided to expand the For Me By Dee range to include prints of my original watercolour paintings, I wanted them to be of the highest quality.

Karl at Lantern Printing came highly recommended through my wonderful network of creative friends.

Lantern specialise in producing exceptional quality Giclee prints, and Karl is involved in my process from the beginning. After one of my artworks has been completed I will travel personally to drop it off at their Melbourne-based studio. Karl will professionally scan my original artwork and provide prints in a range of sizes, as needed. Not only does this provide customers with a high-quality piece of art at an affordable price, but by printing in super-small quantities, we're reducing waste and lowering our impact on the environment.

I have been working with Karl and Lantern Printing since 2013 and I still find it hard to differentiate between my original artwork and the Giclee print!

Linen tea towels and cotton pillowcases

While we choose to work with local suppliers wherever we can, not all of our products are printed and made locally in Australia. Why? Sadly, the capacity of the homewares manufacturing industry in Australia has depleted in recent decades. So to produce our 100% linen tea towels and 100% cotton pillowcases to our preferred quality, we are proud to work with our Hangzhou-based fabric manufacturers who specialise in fabric printing with the latest technology at their fingertips. I have worked closely with the team since 2017 and the product quality speaks for itself.

Our manufacturers pay close attention to the print quality of our linen Tea Towels at every stage of production.