Design Principles - What is a Book - Book Binding: 1st Mock up

Design Principles

What is a book? 
Book Binding - 1st Mock up

As I was unable to book into have a physical workshop with the book binding staff I had to independently learn how to produce a coptic bound book.  I found a step my step tutorial on youtube showing me how to produce a standard coptic bound book. I started by collecting all the necessary equipment, Due to time constraints I couldn't get waxed cotton thread so bought some standard thread and ordered the waxed thread online in preparation for manufacturing my final outcome. I thought the video tutorial was really useful as I could pause it and go at my own pace which ensured I remained concentrated and didn't miss any steps. 

Coptic Bookbinding Tutorial

Overall I was happy with my first mock up as it created a fully functioning coptic bound book. There were a number of small issues with this mock up but I fully expected errors to occur during my first test. The stitching doesn't seem to be as tight as the example demonstrated in the video however I think this will improve with practise and I didn't want to rip the paper. This loose stitching allowed the book to twist slightly which lowered the quality of the outcome. Another issue that was unavoidable was that I had to alter the method to fit my publication as it has a relatively small number of pages I had to use each single fold as a signature. This was not ideal as it makes the paper more fragile and thinner however was the only practical solution that would allow me to produce a coptic bound book. 

Finally the book felt oversized in the hand, looking at Anthropometric Data I found that this mock up was double the breadth of the average hand making it difficult to hold and interact with.  I think this larger scale of the book also contributes to the amount it twists leaving that unprofessional finish. I want to create a smaller mock up using A6 pages (A5 spreads) to see if this eliminates certain errors and makes the physical outcome easier to interact with. 

Anthropometric Hand Data