Out of trash, Kevin Rees creates treasures.

Rees, a State College artist and owner of KR Designs in Wood, makes elegant spoons, knives, cutting boards, bowls, vases, pie servers, spatulas, rolling pins and other items mainly out of reclaimed and recycled wood. Pieces of old furniture, scraps from furniture makers, fallen tree limbs and old crates and pallets compose the bulk of his material.

“I don’t ever make two pieces the same,” Rees said. “What I do is let the wood guide me in where it wants to go, and what it wants to be.”

When he’s finished, after the saws, lathes and sanding, his creations often showcase natural quirks — knots or eccentric grains that might render the wood unusable in other circumstances.

Some of his bowls made from limb segments retain patches of bark.

“It’s those type of imperfections that I centerpiece in my work,” Rees said. “I like to look for interesting grains, patterns, knots and checks.”

Another signature touch is the use of dark tropical woods, such as purple heart and cocobolo, as accents against lighter native woods.

Typically, the exotic inlays come in packages of assorted leftover boards bundled and sold by manufacturers.

“It’s stuff they throw away,” Rees said.

For two years he has made a living from his designs, but his interest in wood dates to his childhood in Pennington, N.J. Rees’ grandfather and father tinkered with wood, making gifts and duck decoys, respectively.

Later, as a Penn State-trained engineer, Rees adopted their hobby — until a bad car accident shattered his hips and changed his focus. Confined to a wheelchair for a year, a trying time for the former Army Ranger, he retired and needed new direction.

Then the idea of eco-friendly wood art struck him.

“I had a love for trees, basically, and I don’t like to see them wasted,” he said.

A friend created a garage shop with lowered saws and benches, reachable from wheelchair height.

The chair eventually went away but the love affair remained. In Rees’ hands, junk transforms. A broken green table leg, cut up, yields a five-piece table set, complete with a napkin holder. Another table leg makes an arresting curved handle for a pizza server.

“It’s just whatever the mood hits me,” Rees said.

Rees sells his work, priced from $15 to more than $200, through www.krdesignsinwood.com, and at The Gallery Shop in Lemont. His small home shop at 1283 University Drive is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday in the spring, summer and fall. In the winter, it’s open by appointment by calling 278-1914.