It Starts With a Branch

Most COSWYK trees begin long before the workshop.

After storms in Cornwall, fallen branches are often left where they land. For most people, they’re just debris — too irregular for timber, too awkward to stack, not useful for much. But when you start building cat trees from raw wood, you begin to see them differently.

We’re not just looking for wood. We’re looking for structure.

Certain shapes stand out immediately. A fork at the right height that could support a perch. A gentle lean that would make sense as a climbing route. A natural junction where rope could sit without dominating the piece. Sometimes we’ll find a branch and know exactly how it might work, but it still needs the right companion pieces — the right base, the right balance. Those branches get set aside and kept until the rest of the build reveals itself.

It’s common for a piece to wait weeks or months before the right combination comes along. Nothing is forced. If it doesn’t make sense structurally, we leave it.

Back in the workshop, preparation begins by removing the bark and sanding the surface. This is where the true character of the wood appears. Grain patterns emerge, colour evens out, and the structure becomes clearer. This process takes hours, but it’s essential. It stabilises the wood, makes it suitable for indoor use, and reveals the exact features that made us pick it up in the first place.

The rope is added selectively, and only where it serves a purpose. Cats don’t need every inch of a branch covered to use it. More importantly, wrapping the entire surface would hide the grain and form that the preparation process uncovered. The goal isn’t to conceal the wood, but to work alongside it.

From there, platforms and bases are built to support the branch as it already stands. The design follows the structure that was there from the beginning. Nothing is bent into place or disguised.

By the time a COSWYK tree is finished, most of its defining features were decided long before it reached the workshop. The work is in recognising those features early, preparing the wood properly, and building around them without losing what made them worth choosing.