Historic Minnedosa church a potter’s paradise

A Hidden Potter's Paradise For 25 years, Jeff Bettle has owned and operated a potter’s paradise tucked away in Manitoba. Joseph Bernacki reports

Minnedosa — For a quarter of a century, Jeff Bettle has owned and operated a potter’s paradise tucked away off Provincial Highway 10.

Travellers commuting between Brandon, Minnedosa and Riding Mountain National Park may notice an old church hidden behind pine trees that is home to nearly 115 years of history.

Bettle is the owner of The Old Church Pottery & Gift. Stepping inside the building formerly known as the Cameron Community Church from 1910 to 1966, is now full of stoneware pottery, handmade mugs, and Manitoba artistry on display.

“I touched clay for the first time 39 years ago and I was told about an opportunity to take a pottery class from a student, somebody I went to school with in high school,” Bettle said.

“I was a little lost about where I was going to go, and she was working the front desk of the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon, and she suggested I take a pottery class. That’s how it started.”

He said making pottery was a perfect fit for his introverted personality.

“The idea of working on the wheel and making just suited me really well,” Bettle said.

'I make maybe 100, 110 mugs in a day'

Sitting on a shelf high above his pottery wheel, Bettle’s first-ever creation from clay is a pinch pot he made in 1985. Nearly 40 years later, Bettle still has the same drive to master his craft while learning something new each day.

“I've been up since five this morning making stuff because I have to find the time,” Bettle said.

“As long as I have the same amount of balls made, the same weight, I make maybe 100, 110 mugs in a day.”

Bettle said after his first class he became a regular volunteer looking after the potter’s studio space in Brandon. It allowed him to learn how to make mixed glazes for the classes, load kilns, fire them and teach others.

“When some of the instructors there lived far away out of town, they needed somebody to kind of supervise the class so they could leave a little early and that just manifested it in me teaching my own classes,” he said.

Teaching in Brandon gave Bettle the means to set up his own space. A place far from the city where he could work, and perhaps one day live.

The Cameron Community Church was once home to three different congregations, but over time, churchgoers moved to Minnedosa, Brandon and other parts of Westman.

By the late 1960s, the church was no longer in regular use and over the next three decades only a handful of events were held in its space.

By 1996, Bettle who would pass the building on his way to Clear Lake, approached a man named Duncan Shorrock who farmed in the area and owned the land where the church resided.

He said he asked the Shorrock family if they were interested in selling the church and two acres of land, with Bettle’s intent to convert the space into a gift shop on the main floor and a workshop in the empty basement.

They loved his gift shop vision and asked if a plaque could be installed commemorating its history.

“My father and I actually installed that with a time capsule in behind the year 2000 with newspaper clippings, coins from the time and there was a big thing,” Bettle said.

“We had 80 people, the former pastor speeches and it was a nice transition. I've been living here now 16 years and it's worked out very well having my studio, my living space and my business all in the same building.”

By 2008, Bettle had winterized the space and loves calling the place his full-time home. Through word of mouth, Bettle has built a customer base welcoming people from all across the globe.

Twenty-five years later, he has been thinking about the amount of support he continues to receive from Manitobans.

“The season for me, the amount of stuff that's been selling and going out the door has just blown me away,” he said.

“The generosity of people after 25 years is just phenomenal. I don't necessarily have to try as hard anymore because I've been here long enough.”

'I am essentially on my own right now'

He said he has sold more than 600 mugs alone since Easter. Bettle said sales this year have been way up over last year as much of Provincial Highway 10 was under construction in front of his business.

“I feel really lucky, it's been a lot of hard work, and people don't see the work from 25 years ago and of 25 years of toll and broken legs and divorces and losing people to get to this point,” he said.

“I am essentially on my own right now.”

Bettle said there may only be 10 to 12 full-time potters in the province and enjoys sharing glazing recipes with the few who enjoy this kind of work on a pottery wheel.

Over the last three years, when he’s not making vases, mugs and other wares made from clay, Bettle has been working on a Tolkien-inspired house that is right out of The Shire from The Lord of the Rings.

“I built the Hobbit house as a bunkhouse for me to sleep in the summertime and I have it air-conditioned and there’s power there,” he said.

It’s become a popular stop for tourists to take photos. He said he has recently inherited collectibles from The Lord of the Rings from close family and plans to display more over time.

Bettle will be turning 60 next year as he continues to make hundreds of hand-crafted mugs and wares from clay each day using his three electric kilns in his basement workshop.

Despite working alone in the country, he said he would not change years of hard work and thousands of hours put into his craft.

“Being here for 25 years, I'm still excited about what comes out of the kiln. I'm still excited about trying new techniques with the crystalline I'm just trying to get into,” he said.

“It tells me that I chose the right path.”

Bettle has The Old Church Pottery & Gift store open full-time from mid-June to September and moves to weekend hours from October to Christmas.