Welcome to my blank book website!

To order one of my books, e-mail me at tedra@fineblankbooks.com.



I enjoy collaborating with you, my customers, to create the book you are imagining.  Please e-mail me at tedra@fineblankbooks.com to start working on your custom order.  (Also, click on the link above to my Information page to read more under the headings “custom orders” and “how custom orders work”.)

Blank books can be used as journals, guest books (for weddings or other events such as retirement and anniversary parties), sketch books, travel journals, or as a place to record family recipes and/or family stories....really the sky is the limit.  Some people even continue the old Victorian-era custom of having a guest book for their house where guests write an entry whenever they come to the house for a dinner party or other event.

Every book on this site has been made by me, by hand.  What you are paying for when buying a book like this is the time and care involved in the design and assembly.  The more complicated the construction, the more expensive the book.  These are REAL books that are made to last.

Please look around for as long as you like and thanks for visiting my blank book website!

Copyright 2011 fineblankbooks.com

Tedra K. Ashley-W., bookbinder

Custom ~ Blank Book ~ Journal ~ Wedding ~ Guest Book ~ Scrapbook ~ Photo Album ~ Diary ~ Anniversary ~ Clamshell Box ~ Handcrafted ~ Bookbinding ~ Book of Shadows

My name is Tedra Ashley-Wannemuehler and I am a professional bookbinder.  By that I mean that I do bookbinding as a full time job, 5 days a week (sometimes more!).  It is my profession, NOT a hobby.  You can learn more about the small bindery where I work at the website www.lincolnbindery.com

I truly enjoy making blank books completely by hand.  I originally set up this site to act as an outlet for selling the blank books I had already made after I decided to stop selling my books at summer arts festivals where the unpredictable weather (and sometimes unpredictable festival-goers) were not the best environment for my books.

Over time, I have realized that what I enjoy most is making custom books.  Currently, about 99% of the work I receive from this site consists of order for one-of-a-kind custom journals, albums, guest books, and boxes for books.
I still have a very small number of already-finished blank books and photo albums for sale.  Please click on the link near the top of this page to see everything that I currently have available for purchase.


 visit
fine blank books
on Facebook and see new work before it is added to the gallery page of this website, leave comments, ask me general questions about bookbinding on the disscussion board or become a fan.  Click on the link above to go directly to the Facebook page.

The fineblankbooks.com logo is now available on a variety of items from Cafe Press including t-shirts, sweatshirts, and stainless steel travel mugs.  I am selling these items at cost in hopes that you might find something you like, purchase it, and wear it or use it to be free advertising for me!  Click on the above link and you will be taken directly the fineblankbooks_wear store at Cafe Press.  Thanks for helping spread the word! 

Copyright 2011 fineblankbooks.com

Now reluctantly on Twitter

If you are a fan of less-then-riveting Twitter postings, you can follow me at:
@tedraashley
I usually post photos of new work to Twitter first, then Facebook, then my website .

A note about leather prices...
If you have visited my site before, you might be surprised to see that the prices on some of the books on my gallery page have gone up.  The leather supplier that I have used for years for black and chocolate brown goatskin leather unexpectedly and abruptly went out of business in early 2011.  This left me with fewer options for book leather.  I have been forced to increase the prices on books covered in black and dark brown goatskin leathers as a result of this.  My new supplier is about 60% more expensive than my old supplier.  I hate to increase prices, especially in the current economy, but my materials cost went up subtantially and I have to pass that on.

December 3, 2011

 OUR  WINNER  IS:
Joey Maxey from Boise, Idaho

PRIZE:

Book valued at $195

The winner will receive one hardcover leather-bound blank book entirely handmade by me. The pages will be blank
and unlined (hand-sewn so the book lays open completely flat). The cover will be dark brown vegetable-tanned
goatskin leather (sorry, you cannot choose the cover color; the cover has already been assembled). This is a beautiful
leather that I cannot get anymore (the supplier went out of business). The cover will have a stepped edge on the front
and back cover that gives it a bit of a "matted" look.

The book will have a dark brown satin ribbon page marker and some really nice black and tan Spanish hand-marbled
endpapers that compliment the cover color.

I won't finish the book entirely, so the winner will still get to choose:

 1. Printed title page
 2. Cover and spine lettering
 3. Cover decoration
The winner gets to choose one design that can be stamped on the front cover

Winner will also receive some small promotional items including:
- white oval bumper sticker with the fineblankbooks.com logo on it
- a triangular embroidered full-color patch with the fineblankbooks.com logo on it (I've given out very few of these!)

CONGRATULATIONS  JOEY!  Thanks for being the first person to e-mail me just after midnight in the first seconds of Cyber Monday 2011!!!!

First Annual Cyber Monday Free Book Give-Away

Free Book Contest prize before...

Free Book Contest prize finished with lettering and decoration specified by my winner: pewter lettering and blind stamped Celtic knot image.

Endpapers; Spanish marbled paper in a black and tan "snail" pattern.

Front cover detail; pewter lettering with blind stamped Celtic knot.

Spine

Detail of blind stamped Celtic knot on spine.