How many hobbyists own a kiln?

[digitaldi]

Does anyone have an idea of how many glass hobbyists own a kiln? In the US? Or English speaking countries? Or, world wide?

[Morganica]

I wouldn't even venture to guess.

First you'd need to define the audience, and there's a big, grey area between professional glass artist and "glass hobbyist." Most of the companies dealing in this space are private, so it's less likely that they'd be willing to share data on kiln sales volume. Also, glass artists often own more than one kiln, kilns don't necessarily have a defined lifetime, and it's possible to use non-glass (i.e., ceramic and PMC) kilns for glass, it'd be kinda difficult to figure out.

Your best bet is to call one of the big glass manufacturers, and also one or two kiln manufacturers, see if they've ever collected such data. If you find out, let us know--it'd be an interesting datapoint.

[Judd]

I would assume most of us started off hobbyists.

[Sharon S.]

I would venture to say, as a hobbyist myself, that a larger percentage of us own kilns, than not. I've taken classes here and there over the past 6yrs or so, with other people who were, what I would consider hobbyists. I think everyone had a kiln, although the size varied quite a bit. One woman I met had only been fusing for about 6 months and had about a 4K kiln. (And she never intended to sell anything...older woman who just thought it was interesting) Other people who were very serious about it, and intending to sell, but with more budget restraints had a 14 incher. Runs the gamut, but I think most do.