There's a contradiction to the material Japanese artist Fumino Hora uses in her recent exhibit, Kimono: Unfolding Cultural Ideals.

"It looks like fabric, like silk," said Ms. Hora, "but it's really metal. It holds its shape."

"It's the same as many women [discover in their lives]: things don't look like they really are," she said.

Art Loft in Mt. Lebanon is holding the exhibit through Oct. 6, and it's a stunning display.

Twenty pieces, including nine traditional kimonos, were crafted from gold-colored woven brass, brass sheeting and metallic thread.

Shadyside resident Ms. Hora, who created this collection while living in Hong Kong for 13 years, said she drew upon her childhood for inspiration.

"By tradition in Japan, parents buy Hina dolls when their daughters are born and they are displayed every third of March," Ms. Hora said.

The festive dolls, representing an emperor, empress and their court, are displayed on an elaborate layered table during the annual Girl's Festival. It's a once-a-year exhibit; it is believed that if the dolls are displayed after March 3, the daughter will not get married.

The tradition, which dates to the 17th century, holds that the beauty and elegance of the dollhouse and its occupants is the parents' ideal for their daughters' happiness.

"I started questioning this as I grew older: Is it happiness to sit in a beautiful house and be a beautiful wife?" she said.

She began with the life-sized emperor and empress, eventually adding soldiers, ladies of the court, musicians and, at the bottom of the pyramid, shoe keepers.

Detailed sketches were her guideline. From there, she cut, folded, draped and teased the larger woven pieces into the shape of the garments, then hammered them into place on a black background.

She spent a year on the entire process and suffered, literally, for her art.

"I was always bleeding," said Ms. Hora, who wore gloves and guards to protect her hands and lower arms against the sharp edges of the metal. "And the material is very, very heavy; my back was aching."

Wisely, she also received a tetanus shot.

Panels from real kimonos served as the templates for the hand-cut brass panels adorning the garments. Photograph transfers of Japanese wedding portraits provide delicate enhancement, and these are a very personal touch for the artist.

"They are all from my mother's family album, handed down from her mother. All are from 1900 to 1950."

The exhibit also displays photo transfers on natural wood backgrounds. The significance here is that the cross-grain slices are from the Kiri tree, which is used in Japan to make the large boxes women favor for storing their kimonos.

Another tradition involves parents planting the tree upon the birth of a daughter, and as the child grows, so does the Kiri.

"But not many people have gardens now, so it's a tradition that's dying," Ms. Hora said.

Therein lies the conflict of her exhibit. On the one hand, she is celebrating the traditional beauty of a well-cared-for wife in the home. On the other, do Hina dolls represent the unfair limitation of women in Japanese society?

Mrs. Hora addresses this with the golden spider-web stitching along the edges of each piece of art.

"It's not only about beauty," she said, pointing to the stitches. "This is my emotion."

The pieces are for sale, with the largest priced at $4,000. Missing are Emperor and Empress. Ms. Hora sold the latter in Hong Kong and has yet to create a replacement.

She is reluctant to display one without the other: "It is sad to have Emperor without wife."

Ms. Hora said she has searched locally for materials to begin another -- "I went to Lowe's" -- but has yet to find the proper gauge of metallic brass.

"Kimono" represents the first solo exhibition in the new Art Loft space on Washington Road. Gallery owner Sally Gehl, who had a space on Beverly Road for 15 years, held a show for the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh in the summer, where Ms. Hora contributed a batik-on-silk piece.

Reaction to the latest exhibit, Mrs. Gehl said, has been exciting.

"People have been awestruck with how overwhelming the pieces are."

Kimono: Unfolding Cultural Ideals runs through next Friday. Art Loft hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.