Picking pumpkins aids art at Lotus Festival

Rows and rows of colorful glass pumpkins will be on display in a pumpkin patch created by Jeremy Sweet at the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival this weekend.

“This event is very unique for the season,” Sweet said. “The kids can stroll through and pick out their favorite pumpkin.”

Sweet chooses to display his glass pumpkins the same way regular pumpkins are displayed. He said that he always has a good crowd of excited and interested people who pick their favorite pumpkin from the patch.

“People put them in their garden or use them as pieces of art in their homes,” Sweet said.

Staying true to the holiday tradition, glass pumpkins are an alternative house decoration in the fall.

“They would be a great addition to my apartment,” junior Michelle Crain said.
The glass art has been on display at the Lotus Festival for four years now. Sweet brought the pumpkins to Bloomington after seeing a glass art event that was a success in Palo Alto, Calif.

His glass pumpkins actually come from California and are shipped to Bloomington, where he adds finishing touches.

“My partner is a glass artist who works for Blind Dog Glass, so that’s where the pumpkins come from,” Sweet said.

Each pumpkin is different. Sweet said each one is made with glass and dye, molded and then fired in 2,000-degree heat. After each sale Blind Dog Glass makes, the company gives some of its profit back to the community for glass art programs.

Sweet first got the idea to work with glass when he saw his best friend’s father glass-blowing.

“That is a lot of work,” Brooks Casbaugh from Pygmalion’s Art Supplies said. “Two thumbs up.”

4th-Annual Bloomington Glass Pumpkin Patch

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
WHERE: Southeast corner of the Bloomington courthouse lawn