ASHLAND — Ashland County residents can add a new staple event to their calendars: The Ceramic Pumpkin Patch Festival, coming to the Ashland County Fairgrounds Sept. 12, 2026.
The festival will feature live music, food trucks, 40 vendors and its namesake: ceramic pumpkins, crafted by Ashland ceramicist Jessie Tyler.
Tyler will handcraft 1,000 ceramic pumpkins for the event. The show will also include jewelry, clothing, home decor, baked goods and more.
He decided to pursue dedicating a festival to the ceramic pumpkins after he created small, pinch-pot pumpkins and sold them at the Prairie Peddler Festival in Butler last autumn.
Tyler quickly sold out of the pumpkins, and customers asked him if he had more and if he could commission larger pumpkins.
Tyler travels to art shows and festivals around the state to sell his work. At one festival, he saw a vendor selling glass-blown pumpkins and decided to make his own out of clay.
“It will be a celebration of pottery, pumpkins and Ohio fall,” Tyler said.
Tyler creates a lot of mugs, plates, bowls and other dishware, but the pumpkins were new.
He will begin creating the 1,000 pumpkins starting in March, and after they come out of the kiln, his girlfriend Lex Westfall paints them.
Why Ashland?
Tyler wanted the festival to be in Ashland because it’s his home, and he wanted to minimize his travel to art and craft shows now that he has a daughter, and another child due in May with Westfall.
“I’m looking to hopefully have a good show and make it annual,” he said, even hinting at creating multiple shows throughout the year.
He has lived in Ashland for six years, but he grew up in Mansfield and realized his artistic abilities early on by making his own clothing.
Tyler became interested in pottery four years ago when he took a class for fun.
From there, he began creating pottery in a shared studio in Mansfield until he built his own in-home studio.
His process was stenciling out designs, and spray painting them onto his clothes. He replicated the process with his ceramic designs, but instead of spray paint, he used a carving tool.