Making a house a home with Vita Cochran

Join us for a creative rag rug making workshop that explores how the Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm turned their house into a home.

Today this colonial bungalow at Parramatta stands as Australia’s oldest surviving homestead. Visitors enter an evocation of what the rooms might have looked like, based on information from family documents and other contemporary sources. Curtains, bed-hangings and covers, tablecloths, runners and rugs have been re-created to provide a sense of how the original inhabitants lived.

Beginning with a tour of the property led by Museums of History NSW Curator Dr Scott Hill, participants will explore how soft furnishings contribute to the appearance of an interior, signalling seasonal changes, room function, taste and status and how we go about replicating authentic soft furnishings today. This will be followed by a workshop introducing the craft of making rag rugs, led by textile artist Vita Cochran. A thrifty technique invented out of basic need in times past, rag rugs are making a comeback as we look for sustainable ways to preserve materials that would otherwise go to waste.

All materials provided. No experience necessary.

This event takes place in Elizabeth Farm’s 40th anniversary year as a museum.

Members get more: Members enjoy presale access and a 20% discount on tickets.

Vita Cochran

Vita Cochran is a textile artist whose work makes dynamic and complex use of recycled materials from climbing rope to coats and knitwear. Her work is in museum collections and is also enthusiastically worn by many collectors. She is currently artist-in-residence at UTS library where she is embroidering realistic moths into the library furnishings.