Craft meets art as Pinehurst resident Tomoko Imai uses an Exacto knife to cut intricate, minute details from a drawing of a kimono, an 18th-century ball gown, or a cartoon character.

She repeats this painstaking process on up to 10 duplicate images. Finally she builds and sculpts layers of multiple cutouts, bonding them with silicone glue. Each layer must dry before another is added. Finally, she sprays the raised figures with a lacquer that makes them resemble porcelain or ceramic.

Then she encases them in a deep frame.

Decoupage? Shadow box? Trompe l'oeil?

A bit of each, requiring patience, practice and excellent eye-hand coordination to implement a technique called 3-D decoupage or 3-D tole. Imai's work is on display at Campbell House and during Springfest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in downtown Southern Pines.

Imai learned this popular Japanese craft before immigrating to California, explains her daughter/interpreter Erie Imai, a student at Pinecrest High School. Tomoko Imai also does stained glass and tole painting on metal. She has taught the technique in other American cities with significant Japanese populations.

Although the Japanese have long been masters of other paper arts like origami, 3-D decoupage became popular in the United States during the Great Depression when crafters, unable to afford supplies, used multiple images cut from leftover Christmas cards to create dimensional scenes.

Imai's subjects are somewhat limited to images printed for this purpose on a specific-weight paper that will withstand glue and lacquer. She purchases these images -- sometimes an entire scene -- from dealers. She is often asked to create a decoupage from a photograph. This is difficult but not impossible, she says, depending on the print process and paper.

One image may take several months to complete.

The finished product appears almost machine-made, a testament to Imai's skills: cutting, gluing, planning and layering the proper dimension. Her images beg touching but must be covered with glass to prevent deterioration from dust and humidity. Instead, look long and hard -- and marvel at the process.

Contact Deborah Salomon at debsalomon@hotmail.com.