The "branch" look in the gable ends was done with Mountain Laurel branches that were harvested from this particular site from trees that were downed in the process of making the build site. One of the craftsman on the site pieced together each gable "branch" from different pieces of the wood. The Mountain Laurel tree inherently has some nice curves based on how the tree grows, so that was a big help! If you don't have Mountain Laurel - Black Locust is also a good species that is naturally insect resistant to some degree.