This portrait of Issota Brembatti Grumelli is one of my favorites for showing Zibbellino. Often in portraiture you see the zibbi being held and they are there as an accessory but they lack in clear details, or at least the pictures we see of the portraits lack details. This one I love for the little pearl earring the zibbi is wearing too.
For my Zibbelino, I am using a recycled (1940s?) fur stole that was purchased several years ago and was made up of 4 musteloid bodies with the hind legs intact but not the front legs. Over the last several years, I have taken it apart to use the individual bodies to make zibbelinos that have been gifts. To start, I wrapped the head in cling wrap and tied it down with a rubber band. I then worked with an oven bake clay to form a head for it and used jewelry findings, beads, old costume jewelry, and crystals to decorate the head. Some of the decorative pieces were pushed into the clay to be baked in, including a brass ring at the mouth.
After the head was formed, I took it off, removed the cling wrap and then put it back on and baked the whole thing including the body. After it was finished baking and cooling, I used some fine grit sand paper to smooth out the clay a bit more then painted it with an antique gold acrylic paint.
Some of the findings were silver colored to start with so they got a coating of the same paint to get them to match.
I glued down the findings, crystals, etc… I then dipped the back 2 feet into the paint so it would simulate the look of the paws being covered as well. Then I formed little bracelets for the legs to look like the woodcut print of Jewelry Drawings housed in the British Museum.
I also added a costume jewelry chain allow the zibbellino to be attached to my belt.
