CODY -- An old ice house in Montana, preserved redwood stumps from New Mexico, a dense fruit wood prized by Indians for making bows and a rusting wheat thresher may seem to have nothing in common.

But they all are materials that lend inspiration and structure to artistic furniture designs featured in the Cody High Style exhibition, running through Saturday at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Using a creative process that is the opposite of how mass-produced furniture is made, the artists of Cody High Style often start with a unique bit of raw material, then follow the shape, grain, texture or form to yield a singular piece.

"The wood inspired the idea for this," said Andy Sanchez, a New Mexico-based designer who used the irregular stumps of redwood trees to create a two-tiered coffee table that evokes the high desert world he lives.

Sanchez found a treasure trove of gnarled redwood bottoms that had been buried in a forest as waste, after their trunks had been cut decades ago for use as dimensional lumber.

"The redwood has all these wonderful figures in it, and it looked to us like a topographical map of ravines. We saw what was in the wood, and wanted to make two layers, like mesas," he said.

Sanchez sanded and worked the redwood bottoms until they resembled a parched desert floor.

The mother-of-pearl texture of an inlaid abalone shell becomes a shallow pool, while the stratified colors of a geode set into a knothole evoke a watering hole that is slowly drying up.

Inlaid silver flows through cracks in the wood's grain, representing a stream that spreads out across the land before running dry.

"We wanted it to tell a story about the landscape, and water flowing over the land," he said.

Reclaimed lumber from Montana tells a different story in a writing desk created by Scott Armstrong of Arrowleaf Studios in Powell.

Armstrong used Douglas fir timbers salvaged from a 100-year-old icehouse along the Milk River, near Glasgow, Mont. The meticulously fitted desk is at the same time delicate and solid, defying expectations with a sturdy build that appears ethereal.

It wasn't reclaimed wood, but an old piece of farm equipment that inspired a lounge chair called Grandpa's Chair Fresh from the Field.

Created by Jerry VanVleet, of Polson, Mont., the chair's upholstery is highlighted by images of wheat, an appropriate motif for furniture built around the rusting remains of a 1936 Case wheat thresher.

Kansas designer Tim Hartlep uses limestone for the supports in a table that weighs more than 600 pounds.

"The wood I used is harder than the limestone," said Hartlep, who works with Osage orange, which was highly sought by Osage Indians for use in bows.

Its unlikely combination of strength and flexibility is just one of the wood's wonderful features, said Hartlep, adding that few designers work with Osage orange because it is notoriously difficult to cut, sand or carve.

"It's one of the hardest woods in North America. You'll get sparks from your chain saw when you cut this wood," he said, adding that minerals are drawn into the wood from the sandy habitats where it grows.

The dense, oily wood resists rot, and is often used for fence posts. Hartlep has built chairs using century-old Osage orange fence posts as legs and arms.

For Richard and Gloria Malinowski, of Sundance, the unexpected materials and unique pieces that they inspire are the central appeal of owning furniture from the exhibition, even though prices can range from $5,000 to $15,000.

"The woodworking and craftsmanship is extraordinary, and the mix of woods they use is wonderful," Gloria said.

"Each piece here is one-of-a-kind. You won't walk into any high-end furniture store and see anything like this," Richard said.

But unlike factory-produced pieces that are engineered to fit in typical spaces, the quirky Western designs featured in Cody sometimes require a little extra accommodation at home, as the Malinowskis learned when installing a 450-pound light fixture they bought at a previous show.

"We had to have them cross-brace it in the attic to hold it up," Richard said.