Help Mandy Miles Replace Her Damaged Kiln

My name is Mandy Miles. I started doing pottery in 2020 as a way to help my mental health. In February 2024 I began officially selling my art to try to make the world a brighter place. I began at a single booth at the Daytona Flea and Farmers Market. I’ve been there every weekend since with my pottery wheel demonstrating how I make functional art and teaching people as they walk by. My favorite part of being at the market doing pottery is seeing kids and adults alike show interest in the process and the art. I’ve been in a teaching role most of my life. In school I loved teaching my fellow students when they had a hard time understanding something. I’ve really enjoyed teaching my son everything I can since birth (he’s almost 6 now and ahead of his class). But the best teaching type job I’ve had so far is out at the flea market. I get to give children a bit of a real life look into the pottery process. I get to explain what I’m doing when I “throw” pottery on my wheel and make something right before their eyes. I have shirts now to cover their clothes so they can get their hands dirty. I love seeing people get interested and excited about what I’m doing because I truly believe that the world needs more art and handmade items. I’ve got one homeschooled student that I teach regularly. I love watching people grow in their pottery journey. When Hurricane Milton came through it caused my house to lose power. My kiln is in my garage and I didn’t unplug it during the storm because I was more worried about flooding than a power surge/outage. What I completely didn’t consider was that my kiln is electric and digital. I can’t say for sure that Milton fried the control panel, but I can say that I replaced the heating elements a few months before the storm and the first time I fired the kiln after the storm it threw an error code that told me the thermocouple (little metal piece that protrudes into the kiln firing area and relays the temperature back to the control panel so it can heat or stop based on the temperature and what the schedule says it should read) had failed. I replaced the thermocouple and fired the kiln. During this firing the kiln stopped reading temperature at the correct highest temperature based on my schedule, but there was a miscommunication between the thermocouple and the control panel and instead of stopping the heating process when the firing should have been complete, the temperature ramped up. It got so hot that it melted the insulator around the thermocouple. The inside of the kiln sustained damage in the form of burnt up elements (the new ones I just replaced less than 10 firings ago), the fire brick that holds the elements and keeps the heat inside the kiln has been slightly melted and has separated from itself (there aren’t supposed to be gaps between them and now there are lots), the fire brick also cracked and some of the walls stuck to the lid. And that’s all before talking about the furniture (shelves and stilts) that melted and warped and the wares inside that blistered and bubbled and literally melted to each other and the shelves themselves. I had three shelves in the kiln during this firing; two of the shelves and their stilts fused together to form a very wonky incredibly solid piece. The day before this firing I had gotten my biggest teaching job to date. It was also my most exciting! A local art teacher from a school for special needs children happened by my booth and asked if I could teach a class to her students and have them all be able to make something special for their families for Christmas. I was so excited! It was going to be my first chance to teach more than a handful of people at one time, it was going to be a chance to give back to my community (I’d told her I’d teach them for free because I feel like it’s a worthy cause and I’m all about making my community a better, more connected, more beautiful, happier place). Art makes people feel good. Art allows you to express yourself in ways that you can’t verbally. Having to call this art teacher the day after she set up a class with me to tell her I had to cancel because my kiln broke was one of the hardest phone calls I’ve had to make in my business. I started out at the flea market with the goal of showing the community a lost art and maybe selling enough pottery to cover booth rent each month. Now my goal is to sell enough pottery to cover some materials too. I give away a lot of snack bowls to children that show an interest as they walk by. They don’t cost me much to make, they’re microwave and dishwasher safe, my household uses them ALL THE TIME, they’re very convenient for portioning things out and they’re fairly durable (we’ve accidentally dropped several onto carpet and the only one that broke was the one that landed on tile). I’ve never been one to ask for money or donations or help; I’ve always been one to do it myself one way or another, but this is a massive setback. My kiln is unusable. I have no way to fire anything new as the closest kiln rental place is over an hour drive away and traveling with greenware (completely dry, unfired, very brittle and delicate) pieces is just not an option. I can nearly guarantee that nothing would survive the route to the kiln I could rent space in. I could potentially fire bisqueware (things that have been fired once and have had glaze put on them that need to be fired hotter to vitrify them and make them useable). But that’s very cost prohibitive as I have potentially 10+ kiln loads of wares to be glazed and each kiln load there is $70. So I’m asking for donations to replace my kiln because without I’m dead in the water and my pottery, and teaching end here. My mental health will likely decline without having the ability to basically meditate while I throw. Pottery truly is my happy place and I’m the best mentally that I’ve been in my entire adult life having art as an outlet. My journey cannot be over yet. I can’t give up. I’m thankful the damage stayed contained to the kiln and its contents instead of spreading through my garage and house. Catastrophic failure in the kiln didn’t cause us to lose our lives, just the kiln part of my business. I know this is long winded and I’m sorry for that. If you’ve read this far, thank you and please consider donating to help me get a new kiln so I can continue enriching my community through art and experiences. Any little bit helps; it all adds up and I’m grateful for every bit that gets me a little closer to being back up and firing.