BY JESSICA SCHLUTER
Don Archer has had a few passions in his life: his family, his work, golfing, and pottery.
Archer began making pottery close to 30 years ago.
“My wife and I always loved pottery, and when we were on vacations we’d stop at a pottery place if we’d see one. About 30 years ago, we decided we’d take a pottery class at the Champaign Park District.”
Turns out, Archer had a natural talent for it.
“My stuff kinda came up, and hers came up and fell in. She quit, but I kept going.”
“I took a couple more classes, then I joined a potter’s club. Eventually, I got my own wheel and kiln and started doing stuff at home.”
For a long time, pottery was just a side hobby while Archer worked in the housing industry and then for both the City of Champaign and the City of Urbana.
“I was a fourth-generation house builder. I used to build houses in St. Joe.”
“Then housing slowed down, and I was the building inspector at the City of Urbana for a while. Then housing picked back up and I went back to it, then it slowed again, and I got a job in the Engineering Department at the City of Champaign. I stayed there until I retired.”
While working a full-time job, he also had another full-time job as the Golf Pro at Blue Needles Golf Course. Now that he is retired, he has more time to spend golfing and working on pottery.
Archer used to live in St. Joseph, but it looked a little different when they lived there.
“We used to live on 8th Street, when 8th Street was the last street on the edge of town.”
Currently, he lives outside of Oakwood, near Kickapoo State Park, and that’s where his shop is.
“We moved out here about 12 years ago, and I had this barn built,” he said. “I told my wife I’m gonna start doing pottery. I’m only open one weekend a month as my little retirement gig. I’m only open nine weekends a month the whole year, so it’s only 18 days the entire year.”
Archer’s pottery is mostly functional pieces that can be used every day.
“My stuff is stuff that you use every day to eat, drink, cook, bake food in. It’s microwave, oven and dishwasher safe.”
“Everything can be put in the oven. Not everything you would put in the oven though. There’s some colanders, some batter bowls, luminaries, yarn bowls. All different sizes and shapes of cups and plates.”
Every month, Archer is making new pieces to replace the ones he sold. There is always something new to see.
“I make 30-40 brand new pieces a month. I try to keep an inventory around 700 pieces.”
“There’s always something new. Always something different.”
Archer also does pieces in Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue colors for sports fans. And he even does special orders.
“I do special orders, if you wanted something for a wedding or a birthday, or Christmas, you come pick out a piece, then I can remake it and put a custom message on the bottom.”
Archer has glazes in 21 different colors, and some of them he even makes himself. And he cuts designs in some of the pieces by hand.
Kickapoo Pottery is open the first full weekend of every month, or by appointment. Archer decided to open a shop on his property rather than travel to art shows and festivals due to the labor of transporting his products and the fragility of those products.
“I thought I would go do a couple of shows to help people find out about my stuff. I went to an art show over in Danville. Clothing or jewelry isn’t too bad [to transport], but pottery is hard. I broke a couple pieces hauling the stuff to Danville and back.”
“That was when I first opened, and I was still doing radio and newspaper advertising. I was having pretty good traffic in the pottery shop. I was selling three times more in a weekend than what I made in one weekend at the art show.”
Archer doesn’t do any radio or TV advertising now, so he relies mainly on word of mouth to bring people in. He does have an email list, and once a month before the weekend he is going to open the shop he sends out a coupon to his email subscribers.
“Business has slowed down quite a bit since when I first started, about 8 years ago. It takes new people coming to see the pottery.”
Archer keeps himself busy and active. He still golfs regularly, sometimes five days a week if he can, and he walks every day with his dog, Emma.
He has a big family: four kids and fourteen grandkids.
His wife never got into the pottery after that first class.
Archer said, with a laugh, “She likes coming out to pick stuff out to give to people, but other than that she doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
Archer says he plans to be open as long as he physically can.
“Probably as long as I can throw pots, and get to the barn physically. At my age, that may not be a long time.”
“I’ll be 75 next month. I’ve lived three-quarters of a century.”
Kickapoo Pottery will be open December 5th-8th as a part of the Little Country Tour. After that, the next official open weekend is in April of 2020. However, Archer will open up by appointment. More information on how to contact him and more pictures of his work are available on the Kickapoo Pottery website.
