Here, a close-up of the mouth. Since this is what the wearer will see through, it has to provide maximum visibility, while still looking like a mouth. It is made of black window screening, while the tongue is red leather.

The head is attached to a dress mannequin,
which is set to the same height as the finished costume.

The interior of the costume is made of sewable foam rubber, which is a layer of one-half inch foam rubber, with a layer of thin mesh fabric glued to one side. The fabric layer allows it to run through a sewing machine without bunching or tearing. We mocked up a trial version of the Otter suit to see how it would look. (We later decided that the foam fabric of the arms and legs would not be needed. -- we lined the inside of the fake fur instead)

The tail is made up of the same foam rubber. 29 disks were needed ranging in size from 3 inches to 12 inches in diameter. They are made of three layers of foam rubber, two of them with the fabric side facing out, and a smaller inside piece for added stiffness. Each one is sewn around the perimeter, and has a grommet in the center, so that they can be connected by a flexible rope.

The magic grommeting tool. You put the two grommet pieces above and below the disk and squeeze the handle, and voila, the grommet is set. This tool, the grommets, as well as the foam rubber, come from a specialty auto supply shop which sells car interior upholstery materials.

Here in Portland, Oregon, it is Perfect Fit-McDonald, a wonderful resource
for all sorts of odd things.

Here are 22 of the tail disks stacked up according to size.
We decided to add a few more, bringing the tail total to 29.

The assembled tail, ready for its fabric and fur coverings.

Two of the four sets of stabilizing strings (black) connecting all of the disks together are now attached. These keep the rubber disks from getting stuck in a non-Otter configuration.

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