Minnedosa –

For a quarter of a century, Jeff Bettle has owned and operated a pottery paradise located off Provincial Highway 10.

Travelers commuting between Brandon, Minnedosa and Riding Mountain National Park may notice an old church hidden behind pine trees that has a history dating back nearly 115 years.

Bettle is the owner of The Old Church Pottery & Gift. When you enter the building that was known as the Cameron Community Church from 1910 to 1966, you will now find an abundance of stoneware pottery, handmade mugs and Manitoba crafts.

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

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

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

“I just really liked the idea of ​​working on the potter’s wheel and making something,” Bettle said.

“I make maybe 100, 110 cups a day”

On a shelf high above his potter’s wheel sits Bettle’s very first work of clay, a pot he made in 1985. Nearly 40 years later, Bettle still has the same drive to master his craft and learn something new every day.

“I’ve been up since five this morning doing things because I have to make time,” Bettle said.

“As long as I make the same number of balls of the same weight, I might make 100, 110 cups a day.”

Bettle said that after his first class, he began volunteering regularly at the potter’s studio in Brandon, learning how to mix glazes for classes, fill kilns, fire and teach others.

“When some of the instructors lived far out of town, they needed someone to supervise the classes so they could leave a little early, and that led to me teaching my own classes,” he said.

Working as a teacher in Brandon gave Bettle the opportunity to create his own space, a place away from the city where he could work and maybe one day live.

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

From the late 1960s onwards the church was no longer used regularly and in the following three decades only a handful of events took place there.

In 1996, Bettle passed by the building on his way to Clear Lake and approached a man named Duncan Shorrock, who ran a farm in the area and owned the land on which the church stood.

He said he had asked the Shorrock family if they were interested in selling the church and two acres of land. Bettle intended to convert the ground floor premises into a gift shop and the empty basement into a workshop.

They liked his vision for a gift shop and asked if a plaque could be put up to commemorate his history.

“My dad and I actually installed this with a time capsule in the background from 2000, with newspaper clippings and coins from that time, and that was a big deal,” Bettle said.

“We had 80 people, the former pastor gave speeches and it was a nice transition. I’ve lived here for 16 years now and it’s worked out very well to have my studio, living space and business in the same building.”

By 2008, Bettle had winterized the space and now calls it home. Through word of mouth, Bettle has built a clientele that welcomes people from all over the world.

Twenty-five years later, he reflects on how much support he still receives from the people of Manitoba.

“For me, the season was just amazing, how much stuff sold and went out,” he said.

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

“I’m essentially on my own at the moment”

He said he has sold more than 600 cups since Easter alone. Bettle said sales this year are up significantly from last year because of the construction of much of Provincial Highway 10 in front of his store.

“I’m really glad, it’s been a lot of hard work and people don’t see the work from 25 years ago and the 25 years of hardship, broken legs, divorces and losing people that got me to this point,” he said.

“At the moment I’m essentially on my own.”

Bettle said there may be only 10 to 12 full-time potters in the province, and he enjoys sharing glaze recipes with the few who enjoy this type of work on the potter’s wheel.

When he wasn’t making vases, mugs and other pottery over the past three years, Bettle has been working on a Tolkien-inspired house straight out of The Shire from The Lord of the Rings.

“I built the Hobbit House as a dormitory for myself in the summer, I equipped it with air conditioning and electricity,” he said.

It has become a popular photo stop for tourists. He said he recently inherited Lord of the Rings collectibles from close relatives and plans to display more of them over time.

Bettle turns 60 next year and continues to produce hundreds of handcrafted mugs and pottery items every day in his three electric kilns in his basement workshop.

He said that despite working alone on the land, he was not interested in working hard for years and investing thousands of hours in his craft.

“I’ve been here for 25 years and I’m still excited about what comes out of the kiln. I’m still excited about trying new techniques with the crystal that I’m just getting into,” he said.

“It shows me that I have chosen the right path.”

Bettle keeps The Old Church Pottery & Gift shop open all day from mid-June to September, and also on weekends from October to Christmas.