GEP

@cbjensen Sorry it took me so long to reply with more explanation of what I said. (I had two shows in the past two weekends, one of which was a travel show.)
I used to do a show that charged a percentage of my sales. This was great when I was starting out, because of the low risk. But after several years, my sales grew to the point where the show became far more expensive than comparable shows. I stopped doing it, and others like me also moved on. I would recommend the show to other newbies, due to the low risk. Eventually, the show figured out that their talent pool was restricted to those who wanted low-risk, thus the quality of their show, and their revenue, was suffering. This has a real impact on attendance and reputation. Their intention was not to be a lower-end, newbie friendly show. But that’s what it turned into. 
Shows like these DO serve a purpose in the art world, by giving a safe space for new sellers. If you decide you want this to be the intention of your event, that’s not a bad thing! Just understand that there will be a ceiling on your quality, revenue, and reputation.
You said “we are a community” but this presumes that every one of the potters has the same goals for their own work, which is probably not true. The longer you do this event, over time it’s natural that some of your members are going to pull ahead of others. I hope you can be supportive of that, rather than trying to define everyone as being the same. 
The show that I mentioned above tried changing their fee structure to “percentage with a cap at the high end.” For some reason, that did not work out for them. I suspect it didn’t work because they had been making all of their revenue from the high sellers, so the cap cut their revenue by too much. So they eventually switched to a “flat fee for everyone” format, but had to deal with much complaining from those who felt entitled to the low-risk format. It was a real hassle for them to change formats. And by then, it was difficult for them to get the high-sellers to come back. (I had already found plenty of better shows to do.)
So my advice is to start thinking ahead about the future intentions of your event. Do you want it to be a safe space for newcomers? Do you want to foster professional quality work? It’s difficult to combine both types of sellers in one event. So maybe the answer is, down the road, you will establish a separate event that is defined as professional-grade. Where the participants are not self-selecting, but rather they need to pass through an arbiter of quality (similar to a juried art fair), and with a fee structure that is more friendly to them, and probably more profitable for your studio as well.  

@cbjensen Sorry it took me so long to reply with more explanation of what I said. (I had two shows in the past two weekends, one of which was a travel show.)
I used to do a show that charged a percentage of my sales. This was great when I was starting out, because of the low risk. But after several years, my sales grew to the point where the show became far more expensive than comparable shows. I stopped doing it, and others like me also moved on. I would recommend the show to other newbies, due to the low risk. Eventually, the show figured out that their talent pool was restricted to those who wanted low-risk, thus the quality of their show, and their revenue, was suffering. This has a real impact on attendance and reputation. Their intention was not to be a lower-end, newbie friendly show. But that’s what it turned into. 
Shows like these DO serve a purpose in the art world, by giving a safe space for new sellers. If you decide you want this to be the intention of your event, that’s not a bad thing! Just understand that there will be a ceiling on your quality, revenue, and reputation.
You said “we are a community” but this presumes that every one of the potters has the same goals for their own work, which is probably not true. The longer you do this event, over time it’s natural that some of your members are going to pull ahead of others. I hope you can be supportive of that, rather than trying to define everyone as being the same. 
The show that I mentioned above tried changing their fee structure to “percentage with a cap at the high end.” For some reason, that did not work out for them. I suspect it didn’t work because they had been making all of their revenue from the high sellers, so the cap cut their revenue by too much. So they eventually switched to a “flat fee for everyone” format, but had to deal with much complaining from those who felt entitled to the low-risk format. It was a real hassle for them to change formats. And by then, it was difficult for them to get the high-sellers to come back. (I had already found plenty of better shows to do.)
So my advice is to start thinking ahead about the future intentions of your event. Do you want it to be a safe space for newcomers? Do you want to foster professional quality work? It’s difficult to combine both types of sellers in one event. So maybe the answer is, down the road, you will establish a separate event that is defined as professional-grade. Where the participants are not self-selecting, but rather they need to pass through an arbiter of quality (similar to a juried art fair), and with a fee structure that is more friendly to them, and probably more profitable for your studio as well.  

Congratulations on the sale!
The reason your professional accountant wants you to submit 1099s to the potters is so you will not be have to pay income tax on the money that passed through Square. 
Square will be sending you and the IRS a 1099  for the money that it collects this year. By sending the potters 1099s your tax return will show those sales as a pass though income

Add up the total expenses from this sale, then divide by the number of potters. Then charge that as a flat fee. 
If you want to generate income for the studio more than just breaking even on expenses, add in a reasonable profit for your studio too. Then divide by the number of potters. 
I think flat fees are a little more fair than a percentage. With a percentage, you are penalizing people who sell better. 

I’m not an accountant, but I’m pretty sure my cpa would say that giving them 1099s is overkill. 
You DO need to remit sales tax for all the sales, but it doesn’t have to be out of your pocket. Just subtract out the sales tax from the funds you collected, then pay out the remainder to the individual potters. You should also subtract out the fees that you paid to Square. 
When I taught pottery classes, I did one sale per year with my advanced students. This is how I handled it, except we added sales tax on top of each purchase, so nobody had to eat that cost. I gave them what they sold minus the Square fees. 
Whether the individual potters report their income properly is up to them. 
This was your first time so don’t sweat the mistakes. Be proud of the great sales! 

Add up the total expenses from this sale, then divide by the number of potters. Then charge that as a flat fee. 
If you want to generate income for the studio more than just breaking even on expenses, add in a reasonable profit for your studio too. Then divide by the number of potters. 
I think flat fees are a little more fair than a percentage. With a percentage, you are penalizing people who sell better. 

I’m not an accountant, but I’m pretty sure my cpa would say that giving them 1099s is overkill. 
You DO need to remit sales tax for all the sales, but it doesn’t have to be out of your pocket. Just subtract out the sales tax from the funds you collected, then pay out the remainder to the individual potters. You should also subtract out the fees that you paid to Square. 
When I taught pottery classes, I did one sale per year with my advanced students. This is how I handled it, except we added sales tax on top of each purchase, so nobody had to eat that cost. I gave them what they sold minus the Square fees. 
Whether the individual potters report their income properly is up to them. 
This was your first time so don’t sweat the mistakes. Be proud of the great sales! 

I’m not an accountant, but I’m pretty sure my cpa would say that giving them 1099s is overkill. 
You DO need to remit sales tax for all the sales, but it doesn’t have to be out of your pocket. Just subtract out the sales tax from the funds you collected, then pay out the remainder to the individual potters. You should also subtract out the fees that you paid to Square. 
When I taught pottery classes, I did one sale per year with my advanced students. This is how I handled it, except we added sales tax on top of each purchase, so nobody had to eat that cost. I gave them what they sold minus the Square fees. 
Whether the individual potters report their income properly is up to them. 
This was your first time so don’t sweat the mistakes. Be proud of the great sales! 

I’m not an accountant, but I’m pretty sure my cpa would say that giving them 1099s is overkill. 
You DO need to remit sales tax for all the sales, but it doesn’t have to be out of your pocket. Just subtract out the sales tax from the funds you collected, then pay out the remainder to the individual potters. You should also subtract out the fees that you paid to Square. 
When I taught pottery classes, I did one sale per year with my advanced students. This is how I handled it, except we added sales tax on top of each purchase, so nobody had to eat that cost. I gave them what they sold minus the Square fees. 
Whether the individual potters report their income properly is up to them. 
This was your first time so don’t sweat the mistakes. Be proud of the great sales! 

I’m not an accountant, but I’m pretty sure my cpa would say that giving them 1099s is overkill. 
You DO need to remit sales tax for all the sales, but it doesn’t have to be out of your pocket. Just subtract out the sales tax from the funds you collected, then pay out the remainder to the individual potters. You should also subtract out the fees that you paid to Square. 
When I taught pottery classes, I did one sale per year with my advanced students. This is how I handled it, except we added sales tax on top of each purchase, so nobody had to eat that cost. I gave them what they sold minus the Square fees. 
Whether the individual potters report their income properly is up to them. 
This was your first time so don’t sweat the mistakes. Be proud of the great sales! 

I order from them on a regular basis too. They are excellent. 

No matter how you end up building your bars, make sure they either telescope down to about half the length, or come apart into shorter segments. A 10 ft long pole is really hard to fit into a vehicle!

I use telescoping crossbars similar to the ones you linked to. I bought them from a photo supply website too.
 The hooks on the ends are conduit straps, which I spray painted black, then attached them to the ends of the crossbars with some heavy duty wire.
https://www.amazon.com/Morris-19405-Pipe-Strap-Steel/dp/B00VNJQLT6

That's brilliant! Thank you very much!
Lucia

I use telescoping crossbars similar to the ones you linked to. I bought them from a photo supply website too.
 The hooks on the ends are conduit straps, which I spray painted black, then attached them to the ends of the crossbars with some heavy duty wire.
https://www.amazon.com/Morris-19405-Pipe-Strap-Steel/dp/B00VNJQLT6

I use telescoping crossbars similar to the ones you linked to. I bought them from a photo supply website too.
 The hooks on the ends are conduit straps, which I spray painted black, then attached them to the ends of the crossbars with some heavy duty wire.
https://www.amazon.com/Morris-19405-Pipe-Strap-Steel/dp/B00VNJQLT6

I use telescoping crossbars similar to the ones you linked to. I bought them from a photo supply website too.
 The hooks on the ends are conduit straps, which I spray painted black, then attached them to the ends of the crossbars with some heavy duty wire.
https://www.amazon.com/Morris-19405-Pipe-Strap-Steel/dp/B00VNJQLT6

In addition to the issues raised by @Rae Reich, are you looking for craftsperson to reproduce a design that is already being made by someone else? If you are in the US, you might run into copyright issues. 

Hi, Donna,
Your project idea seems to put all the Research and Design expense and effort onto the craftsperson. Unless these will be able to command a high price with some guarantee of orders, I don’t imagine experienced potters would take you up on the offer. 
If you need standardized sizes and styles that can be personalized, you are asking for some kind of small-batch manufacturing, which would require serious up-front money. 
How serious are you?
Rae
ps, are these funeral urns?

It used to be that we assumed clay materials were cheap, but kept a short list of the things that were expensive, e.g. Cobalt and Tin.
Now we will keep a short list of the things that are cheap. 
I just noticed that I am low on Wollastonite, so added 50lb of it to my order that I am picking up next week. WOLLASTONITE IS STILL CHEAP! WOO HOO!

It used to be that we assumed clay materials were cheap, but kept a short list of the things that were expensive, e.g. Cobalt and Tin.
Now we will keep a short list of the things that are cheap. 
I just noticed that I am low on Wollastonite, so added 50lb of it to my order that I am picking up next week. WOLLASTONITE IS STILL CHEAP! WOO HOO!

Well you knew it was coming.Everything is going up.  May 1st clay is going up  a small amount and some clays are going away with Laguna as well-I think Frost may be one. Just a FYI
Wondering about spodumene/lithium going up its the lithium -like in a Tesla battery. Rare Earth stuff comes and goes.Some day maybe iron for batteries as it cheap now but may not forever

Re bucket suspension properties: with recipes like Lynette’s Opal that also contain soluble ingredients like neph sye, if you noticed gelling issues with a gerstley borate version, a frit or borate substitute could alleviate some of it. I say some, because I find frit 3134 is also slightly soluble. Not nearly as bad as GB and it takes longer, but it does happen.
After Ferro moved their production to Mexico it took them a while to get back up and running properly. I’ve heard some rumours about first batch quality control bumps that have been worked out. It sounds like they’re re-establishing supply networks, and working on back orders. I would assume that availability of those frits will smooth out before we’re in a substitution crisis again. Something to keep an eye on.

This really depends on what else is in the recipe. 
I took a sample glaze, Lynette's Opal, this seems to be widely used for the past couple years and replaced the Gerstley Borate with 3 different materials that all could be used to supply the boron, Ferro Frit 3124, Laguna Borate and Ferro Frit 3134. Each of those contributes slightly different amounts of other materials than Gerstley Borate. What looks okay on glaze calc doesn't always translate to the bucket or glaze fire so testing would be required to see how they behave. I use Insight glaze calc but the same thing can be done for free using Glazy. 
I purposely used Ferro 3134 in one of the examples and Ferro 3124 in another, see what it did to the EPK amounts? Since Ferro 3124 supplies more alumina than Ferro 3134 I had to reduce the EPK in the former. Since the original had Gerstley and we know that contributes to glaze gelling the alternative recipes with frit will suspend less therefore some extra bentonite might be necessary with Ferro 3124 and Laguna Borate version. 
 

 

What would you recommend? My local supplier is also having some issues with Frit 3134. It’s marginally cheaper, but still not cheap. Right now, they keep a waiting list of everyone who wants it, and anytime they receive any, it’s sold out before it hits the shelves. They told me I can get on this waiting list too, if I want. Are there other options?