The artist designing a sculpture of Carlisle's cracker packers has admitted she can't stop eating Carrs Table Water biscuits.

Award-winning artist Hazel Reeves has been working on the sculpture for the last 10 months.

Hazel has been commissioned by Carlisle City Council to make a bronze sculpture to commemorate the work of the women who pack the famous biscuits.

It will feature two women - one from 1910 and one from the present day - who work at the factory, which is one of Carlisle's most famous workplaces.

The two women will be standing on top of a Carrs Table Water biscuit which will then be mounted onto a granite plinth.

Hazel said: "My sister, who is one of the models, keeps bringing me Table Water biscuits. I can't get enough of them. I keep eating them and so they have to be replaced."

Hazel says she has had to put one biscuit aside which she now carries in a tin. She calls is her reference biscuit.

Between May and June Hazel worked on the armature - the metal structure for the sculpture.

And during the summer months she worked clay onto the models recreating the cracker packers and the biscuits.

"I've had fun sculpting it," she said.

"One of my sister's is a graphic designer and she helped me create the logo for the biscuit.

"It is undulating and quite distinctive and thin."

Two of Hazel's sister's and a girl called Rosie are the models for the sculpture.

She said: "I've had such fun doing it. We had one all nighter where I was still putting clay onto the statue at 5.30am.

"We literally had three hours sleep in the studio before the photographer arrived at 9am and the people from the foundry came at 11am. They were with us for seven to eight days as the sculptures were too heavy to move.

"They put layers of rubber and resin onto the shell and took that mould away to the foundry.

"They will use wax figures that are hollow then they will encase them in a ceramic shell and the pour bronze into the mould. The wax will be replaced by the bronze.

"They will then hammer the bronze out - it often comes out in different sections and then weld it together."

The statue will be meticulously checked by Hazel over a three-day period.

The final step is to do colouring and patination which uses heat and chemicals to create colours.

Hazel said: "I don't have to do anything now until after Christmas.

"The whole process has been amazing and it has been the most enjoyable work that I have done so far."

The sculptures will be brought to Carlisle by a specialist lorry and fitted together onto the plinth in Paddy's Market - opposite the factory on March 8 next year.

The day is quite significant as it is International Women's Day.

An exhibition, drawn together with the support of Tullie House and the University of Cumbria, will depict the story and development of the Cracker Packer statue. It will open at the Old Fire Station soon after the unveiling.

Hazel said: "We had so much fun at the consultation event with the past and present workers. The stories the women told about what used to happen are hilarious and should be recorded."

The sculpture is privately funded, with contributions from Pladis, the company that owns the McVitie's factory; £65,000 from Sainsbury's, as part of its development of the Caldewgate store in Caldewgate; and £5,000 from Cumbrian author Hunter Davies.