Well… I had much better telephone reception in Hinsdale than in Schaumburg.
Plus the weather was better… colder, but at least we didn’t have flash floods!
So I had a good chance to actually use the “Square” for my credit card processing.
And now I have a few more things to point out in my ongoing “review”…

1. Yes, indeed it is too good to be true!

2. It was so simple to put the “Square” apparatus into the the headphone jack
of my iPhone, click on the App and process the transaction. Very simple…
especially once I figured out how to set up the sales tax percentage.

3. People get a kick out of signing right on the iPhone screen… especially when they
find out that they can just shake the phone to erase it and sign again!

4. No one even questioned the process… I though people might find it all a little odd
that they were doing things on my phone, and not “really” receiving a receipt
until they get home to check their e-mail or text message.

5. After a full day Sunday, with a lot of credit card transactions, the battery level
on my iPhone was still only half-way used. Plenty of power for the day!

6. When I got home, all of my credit card transactions were right their in my e-mail.
Simple… easy… done.

But here’s my question for anyone who is also loving their “Square.”
Is there a way to list multiple items in one transaction? It seems to me that you can
only take a picture once, and type in a description for one item. That there’s only one
line available to type a description. But what do I do if I want to shoot a picture and add
a description for more than one item on more than one line with more than one photo?

Also… is there a easy way to print out some sort of “ledger sheet” or list of transactions
from the day? Something for the files… short of printing out every e-mail confirmation
that came to my e-mail?

Anyone?… Anyone?… Bueller?… Bueller?…

Okay… so everyone’s been raving about the “Square” and how wonderful it is
for processing credit card transactions on my iPhone. My plan was to use it at
last weekend’s art fair… but everything didn’t go quite as planned!

When I got to the location, with a LOT of “atmospheric interference”…
which is just a nice euphemism for impending doom, gloom & storms…
my iPhone was not receiving a very strong signal. So we decided to go “old school”
with my original system of accepting cards and processing them after the show.
While I’m still intrigued by the “Square”… here’s a few things I learned…

1. With the “Square” you can now accept all four major credit cards for the same
minimal processing fee. No longer is American Express a huge expense to accept.
Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

2. You can still use the “Square” to process credit cards manually after the show
by typing the information in by hand. My understanding is that the processing fee
is slightly higher for manual transactions.

3. If you are going to process manually, you need to “capture” the credit card number
and expiration date as normal with your old knuckle-buster. But you ALSO need to
write down the “secret” code on the back of the card and the customer’s billing address
zip code. If you don’t have all of that information, you cannot process the card manually.

4. When you get to the point where the customer has to sign, they literally use the fleshy
tip of their finger to write on the iPhone screen. Here’s the best part… if they mess up
or want to start over, you just shake the phone and it erases the signature. Do over!

5. On the customer’s receipt, there’s actually a Google Map with a pinpoint showing
the actual location of where their credit card was used. Very cool.

6. Seriously seconds after pressing “send” to process & authorize the transaction,
the information showed up right away on my laptop. Right away!!!

So I’m looking forward to my next art fair and the chance to use the “Square”
as it is intended. Swiping the cards right through my iPhone. I’m sure I’ll have more
to say about the “Square” as I continue to use it more. But for now…
I’m hopefully intrigued and think it’s going to be great… as long as I can get past
poor reception and my fear of losing battery power after a long day at the fair?!

Now I don’t mean to gloat… and I’m sure I’m not the first…
but I’m all packed up and ready for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg!
Yes, two days ahead of schedule. Unheard of.

Typically, I’d be scrambling all over the place on Friday trying to do everything.
Trying to remember where I left things at the end of last season. Where’s my tent?
How many shelves do I need to take? How much is this? Where is that? Help…
Many potters have been known to be unloading a hot kiln on Friday night
still needing to cool, price & pack on just the night before the show!!! Yikes!

But instead, my parents and I tackled the storage room today and got it all together.
We’re all packed up for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg! Done. Packed.
In the van ready to go… and it’s only Wednesday!!! Unheard of.
Again, I’m not gloating… but I’m just sayin’..

Sure, I still have a few last minute projects to complete. A few supplies to gather.
Snack. Flowers. Signs. But it does feel great to be ready… I’ll sleep well tonight.

Well, that depends on what you consider fun?
If you like a lot of pots, lots of pricing, packing, schlepping, piling, sorting, cleaning…
more pricing… more packing… well, then the “fun” begins this morning! Yippee!!!

It’s time to make sense out of the mess I’ve made in my storage room.
A lot of pots have come out of the kiln, just to be boxed up and piled up in my
storage room. Waiting for today to come… the day of pricing & packing!
Luckily, my best art fair assistants are coming over to help… thanks Mom & Dad.
By the end of the day (and evening?) we’re going to try and have TWO art fair’s
worth of pots priced, packed and ready to go! With two shows so close together,
I think it’s best to divide & conquer – two different sets of inventory ready to go!

Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival – May 28th & 29th– this weekend!
and then just two weeks later…
Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival – June 11th & 12th

It’s amazing what a difference a little underglaze was can make!
Painted on all over, then the top surfaces are gently wiped off.
All of the textures & patterns pop-out and become even more dramatic!

One more firing, this time cone 10…. and these little treasures should be ready
just in time for the Hinsdale Fine Art Festival. Now just a couple weeks away…

So this little piece of plastic arrived in the mail today.
And from what everyone is saying, it’s going to solve all of my credit card
transaction dilemmas. No more knuckle-buster?… can that be true?!
Just plug it in my iPhone and voila’… instant credit card processing!

So I think I’m ready for this. It seems just a little too easy.
I’ll need to give it a little “test run” before the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival
next weekend! And then hope for good weather… and good reception!

With just two weeks until the Schaumburg Prairie Fine Arts Festival…
it’s time to step up my efforts in the “shameless self-promotion” department.
Hey, if you don’t promote yourself, who will?

My mantra for today has been… “postcard, address label, stamp, repeat.”
Going well – but I still have a couple hundred to go!

So Tuesday night’s class was supposed to be “throwing taller”… everyone’s nemesis.
But with the Bulls game… and the Cubs game… and the beautiful evening weather,
attendance was a little low – understandably! So we decided to put off that demo
until next week. And instead, we went with one of my favorites – “Demo On Demand.”
Basically it’s an open night for students to get whatever demo they need… whatever
they missed, whatever they didn’t quite get, whatever they want to see again. So we did
a few different demos… and ended with another demo on how to make ovals for those
who had missed that demo. Plus, we went one step further… and decided that an “oval”
doesn’t always mean that it needs to be a “plain” oval. And after a little post-class-finishing,
this oval pot is now ready to start drying.

And here’s a new favorite… a simple split rim with tight pinches back together
to give it this sort of “quilted” quality! But not on the “side points” sticking out.
I decided to go with the contrast to help define those areas. And then we’ll need to
come up with a similar glazing solution to help accentuate that design choice as well.

So last night was Week Six in our Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheel class.
Let me just say… MY class is a little more advanced than the other beginning classes.
I have a tendency to push my beginners a little more than most. But it’s exciting to see
how they’ve all progressed and are now tackling more advanced pieces. So exciting.

Last night we tackled some more surface decoration techniques. I love showing off
a lot of techniques to my beginners… hoping that at least a couple of them “stick”
somewhere in their heads. If nothing else, it gets them excited to see more fun things
they can do with clay.

So we did some carving, basic sprigs, more slip, carving through slip and more.
The demo’s turned out to be a little too long for class, so I had to finish them up tonight.
And thanks again to my friend Amy Higgason for inspiring the carved & sprigged bowl.

And then we tackled making ovals on the wheel. And the “illusion” of making them look
like the whole piece may have been thrown on the wheel. So we did “the easy” method
of throwing the walls of a cylinder and attaching it to a slab. But the trick is to throw a deep
spiraled bottom piece, and then to stretch it to make the throwing rings appear oval-ized!
Some scoring & slipping… then some stamping & fluting… and today I finished them off
along the bottom edges and added some handles to the large casserole.
The smaller oval will remain handle-less! But still stamped… let’s not get crazy!!!

For a very long time, on that long list of things to do…
I finally got around to making & firing some textured soda slip test tiles.
I acquired quite a few slips from my potter-friend Emily Murphy when she moved to
Minneapolis. And yet I tend to go back to the old “tried & true.” Maybe because I wasn’t
sure how all of the new slips would “react” in the soda firing atmosphere. So I made test
tiles with one of my favorite handmade rolling pins, painted on some slip and fired them
in the kiln. Of course, I also had to make little “props” to hold them vertical in the kiln.

I’m excited to have new samples of the slips – all with a good amount of flashing
to show the range of colors & effects you can get in the soda kiln.