SPINNING, weaving and embroidery are just some of the creative skills that will be on display when Duchy Square Centre for Creativity stages a major textile fair to showcase the best from the west this weekend.

The event — one of two textile fairs being staged at the Princetown centre this year — will feature some of the region's leading textile traders and creative artists, who work with a whole host of fabrics and other materials.

Textile practitioners and suppliers in beading, embroidery and felting, as well as dyeing, weaving and spinning will be represented at the event, which takes place on April 1 and 2.

Visiting exhibitors will include Tamar Embroideries of Gunnislake, Spin a Yarn, based at Bovey Tracy, Felt Folk, Ivybridge and Sara Rose Textiles, also Gunnislake,  along with Duchy Square residents Jane Deane, a weaver, spinner and dyer and Mary Toon of Felt Amazing – both from Tavistock.

The event is testament to Duchy Square's growing reputation as a centre of excellence for textiles through its series of textile day networking sessions, held on the last Friday of every month and hosted by Jane Deane.

In recent months, Jane has been a driving force in raising the profile of creative textile work from Duchy Square through the sessions, which bring practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines together to share ideas and support each other in their business ventures.

She was also behind last year's hugely successful textile trade fair at Duchy Square, which attracted the cream of textile businesses from across the country, as well as the South West.

Due to the demand from traders, there will be a repeat of the textile trade fair on October 28 and 29, with businesses and individual practitioners from all over the UK and Europe coming to Duchy Square again.

It is designed to connect major suppliers of textile materials from across the country with both existing textile practitioners and those wishing to take up the craft.

'Duchy Square is now recognised as one of the leading venues nationally and internationally for textile events and its reputation continues to spread,' said Jane, who runs Jane Deane Textiles from Duchy Square.

'Businesses that attended last year's event were very keen to return, but we also wanted to give our locally and regionally based talent a fair of their own to showcase their skills and wares.' 

Opened in March 2009 and supported by a number of organisations, including Duchy of Cornwall and Devon County Council, the Duchy Square Centre for Creativity offers low cost workshop space on two floors.

All the artists and creative practitioners take part in workshops organised by the centre, but also stage their own sessions with smaller groups in their own studios.

For more information on workshops and the exhibition programme at Duchy Square, call 01822 890828 or visit http://www.duchysquare.org">www.duchysquare.org where contact details for all the artists can be found.