THEY look good enough to eat, and if you're feeling a bit peckish, you probably could!

Todmorden artist Margaret Mytton is tasting sweet success with a range of portraits of Rawtenstall Market regulars -- all made from sweets.

Fifty highly detailed portraits, which form the Sweet Art exhibition, are displayed in Win's Cafe in the Newchurch Street market.

The 48-year-old mother of two used thin strips of liquorice to create the faces of the shoppers and stall holders. Others are made by sprinkling sugary concoctions of 'cream soda' and 'coal dust' on to the canvas.

But working with such a tasty medium has caused one or two sticky situations.

"I did a series of larger abstract paintings using toffee, the stuff lollipops are made from, but the steam in the cafe caused them to 'slide'," explained Margaret, who spent hours boiling up huge batches of the mixture at her studio in Waterfoot.

"When they originally set they were rock hard. "If you thumped them they would shatter. But the steam in the cafe, especially when they washed up at the end of the day, caused them to soften so I had to take them down. It was unfortunate because the finished surface looked like coloured glass.

"It's a shame they weren't permanent.

"The ones done in liquorice took ages to set and when I was working at home I had to leave notes for the children to keep their fingers off."

She also had problems with the cream soda portraits, which turned to "syrup" and became transparent.

"They just disappeared!" said Margaret. "I'm in the process of doing them again. I'm just hoping the others are going to be all right." The Rawtenstall Market Project is sponsored by North West Arts.

It involves thirteen artists from the Globe Arts studios who worked with the stall holders to produce work which will be displayed at the market throughout the year. Margaret, who teaches art at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: "It's been a really lovely thing to do. Eunice from the Toffee Stall has been great. I've met lots of interesting characters and I've really enjoyed it."

The exhibition runs until September 30