J.c. Moore

Childhood:Born and raised in the small town of Winchester Indiana, J.c. Moore is the son of a 3rd generation carpenter/craftsman and a 3rd generation educator.  The basement of the family home held within its walls every piece of woodworking equipment one would ever need, and this is where J.c. spent a great deal of his time as a child.  With the tools available for his use and plenty of wood, his imagination was free to create whatever he could dream of.  Many of his toys were his own creations crafted in his father’s workshop.



His Parents:

J.c.’s father, Charles, with his brother George and their father Lloyd, built custom homes in Winchester and surrounding areas.  Charles also built beautifully crafted custom kitchen cabinetry...his business was the Moore Cabinet Company.  By the early 1970’s, the Moore Cabinet Company (J.c.’s father the sole employee), shifted interest to crafting some of what are now considered the finest non-pedal steel guitars ever made.  Under the name “Holiday”,  the Holiday Steel Guitar Company (the new name of the Moore Cabinet Company) hand built 47 steel guitars in total from scratch using the finest of woods available.  Charles also sold other stringed instruments from the home’s basement office, until he retired from the business in the late 1980’s.  Charles Moore was also the founder and president of an organization called “The International Hawaiian Steel Guitar Club” (IHSGC).  Not long after retiring from building and selling guitars, he also retired from the IHSGC, handing it off to several of its members.  The organization is now know as the “Aloha International Steel Guitar Club”.  J.c.’s mother was equally creative and influential but in different ways.  She was very artistic and well organized.  From her, J.c. learned many things with great diversity: his love for art, creativity, and music to name a few.  From his parents he gained a great deal of respect in regard to quality of workmanship.  J.c.'s parents still reside in Winchester, Indiana.



Early Involvement with Magic:

J.c.’s interest in magic started around age 7.  At the time, magician Marshall Brodien was seen on TV on a regular basis.  It wasn’t long before J.c. was collecting his own trunk of magic to perform and shadowing a local magician.  J.c. remembers when Doug Henning started his TV appearances, and J.c. traveled to see him perform on tour in Indianapolis.  J.c. now owns a cabinet believed to have been a part of Henning’s collection.   Henning was a huge inspiration to J.c. and many magicians of today.  J.c.’s primary interest in his youth was close up magic and escapology, the art of escaping from chains, handcuffs and other restraints.

 

The Paranormal and Supernatural:

Due to events and experiences around the same time as J.c.’s start in Magic that didn’t become clear until much later, J.c.​ has also gained interest in the Supernatural, Paranormal, and Physical Phenomena (Spiritualism).  He has had experience within all of these fields. In the year 2000, after numerous events, he discovered the long hidden secrets of his family’s spiritualistic past reaching back into the mid 1800’s, explaining many things, such as the very powerful and personal experiences with the deceased members along one side of his family starting in 1973. Over that period of time he began to develop an ability referred to in the field of parapsychology as “Claircognisance” (knowing). This ability became clearly evident in 1999, and he began to experiment with it “remotely” at that time (not yet knowing of the past). He has said “It was both fun and very scary at the same time. Again, it made sense once I found out that my Great Great Grandfather was a prominent member of Camp Chesterfield in the late 1800’s. His second wife was among the very few, if any, who was said to be able to make an apparition appear, walking with her in broad daylight along the paths of the camp.”  J.c. speaks of his Great Great Grandfather, Dr. Joseph Hale Mendenhall. 



Selena:

In 2001, J.c. met his beautiful wife Selena.  For many years J.c. had put magic away in the closet, hidden in an old suitcase, rarely pulling it out.  J.c. had just stated to re-explore his passion for woodworking and creating, having started building furniture and designing stained glass pieces.  Selena encouraged J.c. to once again entertain his passion for magic and creativity.  He started to add to his collection and soon found that the quality of workmanship in magic props that were on the market were not up to his standards, so he started making his own props to meet his own ideas of what things should be.  Selena, an engineer with her own artistic interests, combined her talents with J.c. in designing stained glass, textiles, and other elements.  With all of their diverse interests, J.c. and his wife Selena have created “Mooreni” where their artistic talents and creativity can be shared with the world.

 

The Work:

The work of Mooreni has been sold to collectors and professional performers world wide and currently can be found in various locations in the USA, Canada, UK, and France.  Mooreni’s creations have been highly praised, sought after, and valued far above their original purchase price, far exceeding even J.c’s expectations.  From props utilized by Magicians, Mentalists, and Illusionists, to devices used by Paranormalists, and stained glass and boxes treasured by any collector with an eye for art, Mooreni uses the finest of materials to create the very best high quality product.



The Workshop / Studio:

The work actually began in McCordsville, Indiana with minimal equipment and limited work space.  It was there that the Illumini Spirit Light was born in 2009.  Like so many small endeavors, Mooreni started in a garage.   In 2011 we moved the workshop to Electric City,  Washington (2,100 miles across the country) and a few pieces of equipment were added, including three pieces of vintage woodworking equipment that were original to the Moore Cabinet Company....a 1957 drill press, a 1959 jointer, and a 1960 Bandsaw, all vintage Delta Rockwell equipment in near mint condition. The Electric City workshop was set up in a basement space with limitted light and ventilation.  A major challenge, besides that of light and ventilation, was the remoteness of the location.  Most materials that were once only minutes away now required a 200 mile drive to acquire.  Early in 2015, we began to look at once again relocating.  This time to someplace a bit less remote.  

 

Nesteled in the foorhills North West of Boise, Idaho, the Mooreni Studio now resides (as of 2016) within the studio space of our home located in the Village of Hidden Springs.   No more undconditioned garages or dark dusty basements, the new Studio has natural light from three sides and a nice cross ventilation during the Fall and Spring months.  There is also now a seperate finishing area which is free of the dust of daily work.