Cynthia Weill Papers

This collection contains material from the book Ten Mice for Tet. The illustrations were commissioned by Weill from Vietnamese artists for the picture book, and were hand embroidered. The material consists of final artwork (embroideries), sketches, proofs, material used in the embroidery process, correspondence, photographs, woodcut stamps, and information about the artists and their craft. The embroidery "Mouse Wedding," was stitched by Ten Mice for Tet embroiderer Phạm Viết Đinh, and the mice in antique wood block were the inspiration for the illustrations. The collection includes Dong Ho-style paintings on rice paper, which inspired the style of art in Ten Mice, as well as early paintings by Tô Ngọc Trang, the book's illustrator.

The process for making the final embroidery illustrations consisted of photocopying artwork, placing tracing paper underneath and pricking holes along the outlines. After this step, the tracing paper was placed over linen and blue powder poured over the holes to transfer the outlines to the linen, for the embroiderer to follow.