Celebrating 75 years, the Village of Yesteryear is an exhibit that demonstrates traditional handicraft and heritage skills. Held every year at the N.C. State Fair, the village has featured more than 100 artists and crafters creating, displaying and selling time-honored handmade crafts. “A Maker’s Dozen” is a series that tells the stories of these artisans and educates about their heritage crafts.
“Educating is more important than selling,” says Bill Seippel, a sixteen-year vendor at the Village of Yesteryear. A Winston-Salem native, Seippel is a skilled candlemaker and tinsmith. “I primarily sell to churches across the United States, including Alaska,” he explains. Over the past four decades, Seippel has crafted more than 750,000 candles.
“I first began making candles at age ten with my Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pete during church Bible school,” said Seippel. “For more than 40 years, we produced candles for the Calvary Moravian Christmas Eve Lovefeast. When they eventually retired, Uncle Pete asked if I wanted to keep the craft in the family, and my wife at the time, Anne, and I decided to carry on the tradition.”
“The first year was quite a shock,” Seippel recalled. “When we first assumed these responsibilities in 1983, we produced 2,500 candles for Calvary’s Lovefeast service. At that time, we only made them for this specific church. Before my wife, Anne, passed away, our production had grown to between 25,000 and 30,000 candles at a time.”
When Seippel launched his candle-making business, he was working full-time as a systems analyst. “I worked for AT&T as a ‘computer geek,’” Seippel said. “I earned my degree in business administration with a focus on computer applications and specialized in business software development.”
“What I probably enjoy most about my craft is teaching people about my candles and the Moravian tradition,” said Seippel. “I love meeting the people and opening those discussions. I especially enjoy children visiting my booth. They are so curious and I love answering their questions. If someone is trying to buy from me and I am answering a child’s question, the buyer has to wait. Educating is more important than selling.”
Seippel has been a beekeeper since he was 12 years old thanks to the Boy Scouts. Each year, he uses around 2,000 pounds of beeswax. He doesn’t make it all on his own bees. He sources his beeswax from many different places. “I prefer buying locally because I get to have a relationship with the beekeeper, know what his wax looks like and it helps the local economy,” said Seippel.
The craft of candle making dates all the way back to colonial times. “Settlers would use beeswax and combine it with tallow to make candles,” said Seippel. “Tallow is a type of hard animal fat, I use beef tallow mixed with beeswax to make my candles. With tallow added, candles burn about 25% brighter. When mixing, I use 80 pounds of beeswax and 20 pounds of tallow.”
When making candles, Seippel specializes in two types: tapers and pillars. Tapers are tall and slender candles that require a holder while pillars are shorted and thicker, standing on their own. Seippel makes tin ornaments as well as tin holders for some taper candles.
“I use molds to make my candles,” said Seippel. “For the tapers, I use the molds made by my family over the years. For the ornaments, I use old German chocolate molds. If you’ve ever seen a chocolate easter bunny, they used to be made by hand in a tin German chocolate mold. I use those antique tin molds to make Christmas tree ornaments.”
Seippel does several shows a year to demonstrate and sell his product. He does the Mountain State Fair, Carolina Classic, N.C. State Fair and the Moravian Festival along with the Music Festival in Old Salem.
“I remember my first year at the Village,” said Seippel. “When I first set-up, lots of honey bees showed up each day. They visited my booth because they smelled the beeswax of my candles. Nowadays, that number is almost non-existent. Honeybees are becoming more scarce.”
“I am excited for this year’s N.C. State Fair, but also a little nervous,” said Seippel. “My current wife, Rev. Linda Seippel, is a Moravian minister, so she can’t be there every day to help. But I enjoy it. Educating ones who are interested make all this craft worth it.”
