the Gopher -- design and body construction

	So, I did some sketches, with the one at left being what I was aiming for -- a cross between a big bear and a crazed looking gopher. I had bring the eyes further together on the head so I could see out of the head reasonably well. Since I was thinking this would make a fun hall costume, I wanted to the mouth to move when I talked. The plan also called for the bottom of the belly to fall just above my knees as a way to change body proportions.
I conferred with a friend and professional mascot maker, Daren Bost about how to make the body. What I was going to build was essentially a "fat suit" in order to get the roly-poly look. His advice was to build it in sections, like an orange. With only 3 months, I had to simplify somewhat, settling for 8 sections, when I probably should have done more, at least in the front. I started by cutting out a pattern from pieces of newspaper for the front and back sections. I draped them off a wire-frame mannequin (very handy) in a way so that I would get the proper curve to the center of the back and the front with for the belly. I cut the foam and adjusted them from there.
	I tried cutting the edges so that they beveled, to get a better join between them. It was mostly successful. After cutting out the pieces, I used a spray adhesive called Foamfast 44 to glue the pieces along their edges. I glued thicker or sturdier pieces of foam to the inside to maintain the shape of the curves while I worked with the individual sections.
	Once I had the front and back done, it just became a matter of adding new pieces of newspaper and cutting out the right-shaped pattern for each piece. Admittedly, it was a bit trial and error, and there had to be some trimming of each new section.

First, I thought I'd model the costume on the Caddyshack Gopher toy, which was my initial inspiration. However, after taking some photos and comparing them....

....I could see that the proportions just weren't going to work.