Pumpkin Patch, Opening Sept. 4

Asheville flameworker Mark DeShields’ “unexplainable reverence” for pumpkins dates back to elementary school, when every student in his grade was given one to carve. But sculpting the squash into a crooked-tooth Jack-o’-lantern didn’t sit well with DeShields. “I felt it needed more purpose than just decoration,” he remembers. “So I took mine home and made pumpkin pie with my mother that I shared with the class.” Today, he channels this reverence for the great pumpkin into decorative glass gourds. They’re not edible, but they nevertheless make quite a statement on the dinner table. To harvest your own, visit the Pumpkin Patch at the North Carolina Glass Center this autumn. DeShields will be joined by more than 30 other glass-artists-turned-pumpkin-peddlers, including Annie Jacobsen of Her Glassworks. This year, Jacobsen has propagated a field’s worth of tiny, translucent pumpkins as well as more substantial squash “with an optic twist.” Regardless of size, all pumpkins purchased during the fall exhibit support the nonprofit glass center and participating artists.