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.
From the forest to the fiddle. This is the motto for fiddle-maker Michael Anderson, a 13-year crafter in the Village of Yesteryear who was nominated as Craftsman of the year in 2025. He has lived in Louisburg for the past 29 years.
Anderson started making fiddles about 26 years ago. “I studied under a gentleman named Arthur Connor from Copperhill, Virginia,” said Anderson. “That man taught me everything I know about fiddle making. My mentor was self-taught, which I just think is so fascinating. With his help, I joined the Violin Society of America.”
“Ever since I was younger, I have always loved music,” said Anderson. “I loved making things out of wood, so fiddle making combined those two things. I wanted a challenge that would take beyond a lifetime to figure out. Making these wooden instruments that create a voice of music is a challenge worth taking to me.”
“Fiddle making is a very time-consuming task,” said Anderson. “Without taking into account harvesting the trees I used to make the fiddles, it takes me around 350 hours to make a single fiddle. If we consider the wood I harvest, that wood takes 4 years to cure before I can use it. But that’s the way I like to make them. From the forest to the fiddle.”
Anderson makes the patterns for the fiddles himself. This includes cutting the logs, splitting the wood and crating a triangle shape. From there he glues the bark ends together to create an arching shape. This helps with the final step, which is hand carving.
I use traditionally respected tonewoods for my fiddles,” said Anderson. “Some of these include red spruce, red maple, big leaf maple and willow wood. The red spruce wood is good for the acoustic of the instrument. The maple wood is used for the back, sides and neck of the instrument. Lastly, the willow wood is used to line the insides of my instruments.”
“While doing my craft, I also had an additional job,” said Anderson. “I was self-employed though, of course. I did residential and commercial renovation, restoration and new construction. It was a side gig to help pay the bills.”
The number one question people tend to ask about a fiddles is how is it different than a violin. As Anderson liked to put it, “One is played on Saturday night and the other is played on Sunday morning. One has beer spilled on it and the other champagne. Essentially, what I am trying to say is that there is no real difference except the way that it is played, what people associate the instrument with and the name. That’s why when someone asks me if I make a violin or a fiddle, I simply tell them, ‘Yes’.”
“My favorite part of the fair is interacting with people,” said Anderson. “Not just my friends in the Village of Yesteryear, but everyone who passes through. The whole reason I am there is to do what we all do best: Educate, inform and inspire. These crafts of ours are important to us and each of us have a passion about it, and we hope to tell others about it and share that passion. I can’t emphasize enough my reason of being there: Educate, inform and inspire. I can’t wait for my 13th year this year.”