Hi, I’m Lauren, the person behind Cwtch Cath. I am a lifelong cat person, artist, former art teacher, maker, collector of colourful things and someone whose life has somehow become very heavily populated by cats. Cwtch Cath roughly brings together the idea of a Welsh “cwtch”, a cuddle, comfort or safe place, with “cath”, the Welsh word for cat. It feels pretty fitting for something that grew out of both creativity and years spent surrounded by cats.
🐾 Growing Up With Cats
Cats have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a home full of feline companions and became my mum Karen’s trusted helper whenever another cat appeared in our lives. Over the years I learned how to care for cats with very different personalities and needs, including administering medication, caring for kittens and helping nervous or vulnerable cats settle. Their company has always brought me a huge amount of comfort and peace. After qualifying as an art teacher and moving away from home, one of the things I realised I missed most was having cats around me every day. Eventually I moved home again, just as Mum’s informal rescue work was beginning to grow.
🐈⬛ Karen’s Cat Community
Karen had always been the sort of person people contacted when an animal needed help. She was increasingly supporting local farmers and members of the community with stray cats, farm-born kittens and cats needing new homes, and I gradually became more involved alongside her. What began very informally eventually developed into Karen’s Cat Community.
For several years, particularly following COVID, cats and rescue became an enormous part of our everyday lives. There were kittens to feed, medications to give, vet appointments, fundraising, cleaning, social media, rehoming and seemingly endless washing. It taught me a huge amount about cats but also about compassion, community and just how much work sits behind every animal rescue story.
As our circumstances and health changed, the way Karen’s Cat Community operated also had to change. It has gradually moved towards a more sustainable sanctuary-focused model, with greater emphasis on the long-term future of the cats already connected to us.
🎨 Where Cwtch Cath Began
Alongside cats, art and making things have always been a huge part of who I am. Cwtch Cath first appeared in 2022 as a creative fundraising project connected to Karen’s Cat Community. I started making and selling things because it gave me somewhere to put all the creative ideas constantly floating around my head while also raising money towards the cats. For a long time, everything I made through Cwtch Cath was essentially another way of supporting the rescue. But I also began to realise that I wanted, and needed, creativity to become part of my own future too.
In 2024, Cwtch Cath started evolving from a fundraising project into a small independent business. That transition has been a learning curve. I’m still working out the practical side of running a business while balancing work, cats, creativity and everything else life throws in. But it has given me something that combines so many parts of myself in one place.
✨ Cwtch Cath Today
In 2024, I officially started Cwtch Cath as my sole-trader small business. At that point, it was still very focused on the things I had already been making for Karen’s Cat Community; handmade catnip toys, Halloween treat bags, Christmas stockings and other seasonal pieces.
I loved making them, but realistically I was mostly creating products around Halloween and Christmas because those were the times of year I could actually find the time. For the rest of the year, Cwtch Cath would become much quieter while work, cats and everything else took over. Over the last year or so, I’ve started allowing Cwtch Cath to become a little broader and much more reflective of the things I actually love. I introduced different collections and categories, moving beyond simply being a “cat craft shop” and into something that also celebrates nostalgia, colour, sensory joy, alternative style, creativity and the idea of finding your own kindred spirits.
Secondhand and reselling have probably taken over a little more than I originally expected this year! But they have also been incredibly useful. Selling curated secondhand clothing and finds through Vinted and the physical shop has helped bring money into the business at times when I haven’t had the hours or energy to sit and manufacture lots of handmade stock. And actually, that is beginning to do exactly what I hoped it would.
I’m finally reaching a point where Cwtch Cath can earn money through more than one thing. I can sell curated and secondhand products when I don’t have time to make, while gradually creating enough breathing room to return to the sewing machine, experiment with new ideas and make more of the products I really want Cwtch Cath to become known for.
I’m not quite at the version of Cwtch Cath I can see in my head yet. There are still far more ideas than time, and the handmade side is something I’m continuing to build back up slowly. But for the first time, it feels like I can see that version of the business in the distance and I’m getting there.
My long-term hope is for Cwtch Cath to have a sustainable mixture of handmade creations, thoughtfully curated products and secondhand treasures, with each part helping support the others and giving me the time and freedom to keep creating.
💕 Cats Are Still at the Heart of It
Although Cwtch Cath has grown into a business in its own right, its connection with the cats has never disappeared. Karen’s Cat Community is part of why Cwtch Cath exists in the first place, and 10% of Cwtch Cath profits continue to support KCC.
Billy and the rest of the cats also remain extremely committed to their unofficial roles as models, supervisors, product testers and obstacles whenever I attempt to photograph anything.
Longer term, I would love to grow Cwtch Cath into something even more community-focused. One of my biggest ambitions is to eventually develop it into a Community Interest Company (CIC) that could support not only Karen’s Cat Community, but potentially other local animal rescues and welfare projects too. I’d also love to explore the creative side of that much more; community art workshops, collaborative art projects, cat-themed competitions and exhibitions. Things that bring people together creatively while also helping raise money for cats and animal welfare. The idea would be to keep the creative, colourful, cat-loving heart of Cwtch Cath, while building something that can generate income sustainably, create opportunities for people to make and connect, and use some of that success to support animals and the people caring for them.
I’m not at that stage yet, but it is very much part of the future I can see for Cwtch Cath.
🌙 Still a Work in Progress
Cwtch Cath is still very much a small, evolving business run by one person with far more ideas than hours in the day. I don’t have everything figured out yet and I’m increasingly accepting that I probably never will. But I know I want Cwtch Cath to remain somewhere I can combine cats, art, creativity and the things that bring people a little bit of joy.
For more about what Cwtch Cath sells, how products are sourced, inclusivity, sustainability and the values behind the business, have a look at the About page.
Lauren x 🐾