Jodi Bock Stained Glass

Copyright Richmond Newspapers, Incorporated Jun 21, 2000

While gluing electrodes onto the scalp of a patient at Retreat Hospital 10 years ago, Jodi Bock had an epiphany.

"It just hit me," she said. "It was like I came out of myself and I could see myself sitting there. I thought, `This isn't me.' I realized I had to do something different."

So she quit her job as an EEG technician and raced home to start a new life. After a little soul searching, Bock found success as a stained-glass artist.

"I was a little worried at first," she said. "But it was the right thing to do. I realized I had been in a long sleep. I was just going through the motions. I realized I had to do something creative."

Bock took a six-week course in stained-glass art when she was a teen-ager, but rarely practiced the craft. In 1991, though, just a few months after bidding farewell to her hospital career, she opened Jodi Bock Magical Stained Glass

She narrowed her specialty to jewelry boxes, and her work improved. Within a few years, she was a favorite at area craft shows, not to mention Cocoanut Jewelry, Mongrel and the gift shop at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She ships her pieces to about 50 other stores and shops throughout the country.

"It sells very well and very consistently," said Colin Wilkinson, jeweler at Cocoanut. "The pieces themselves are made very well, and people like the idea of coming in here and buying something from a local artist."

As a one-woman show, Bock felt the pressure to produce. She found herself clenching her jaw during the middle of the day or stiffening her muscles for no apparent reason.

She enrolled in a yoga class at the YMCA in 1995 and felt immediate improvement.

"The feeling you get after finishing a class is like walking on air," Bock said. "It relaxes and revitalizes you."

Bock believes so strongly in the benefits of yoga that she began teaching her own classes at the YMCA 1 1/2 years ago. Last fall, she took her act on the road, teaching yoga to businessmen and women at their offices during their lunch hours.

"We seem to always be on a deadline here," said Stacie Vanchieri, owner of Modelogic, a Richmond model and talent agency. "People call and want something yesterday. It's nice to have that hour of the day to just chill out. Yoga is just awesome. It's so relaxing."

Vanchieri recently enrolled herself and her three employees in a six-week yoga class. Bock sets up shop in the Modelogic studio for an hour each week.

"I think more businesses are seeing how beneficial it is to their employees," Bock said. "There's always going to be stress, but yoga can teach you how to handle it in a different way. It relaxes your body and calms your head so you can respond to stress in a healthier way."

An avid flute player and a practicing vegetarian, Bock has contemplated devoting all her energies to music and yoga. But she can't make the break from art. She normally spends several hours each day in the basement of her Carytown home working on stained glass.

She's not alone. Her husband, Dan Iott, has taken up shop in the other half of the basement with his photography equipment. While he still eats meat, he has tried his hand at yoga.

"She's had some influence on me," he joked.

Iott stays clear of her stained glass. His wife's work begins at the glass cutting table, where she takes a sheet of glass (smooth, beveled or raised) and cuts it down to pieces measuring several inches. Then she grinds the edges so they are smooth, rinses them off and dries them. She wraps copper or silver tape around the edges so solder will stick. After selecting the decorations, like wire spirals, charms, beads or strings, she attaches them to the top of the boxes.

Not all the boxes are the same size. Some are larger, intended to hold jewelry items. Others are small, for just rings. Still others can hold a tooth, to be left on the night stand for the Tooth Fairy. Bock also makes stained glass business card holders.

Each piece takes about 30 minutes to complete. Many times, Bock has no idea what the boxes will look like until she has completed them.

"That creativity is real important to me," she said. "I'm pretty spontaneous in all aspects of my life. I don't like to plan. I like to see what develops."

So far, she's ecstatic with the results.

"If I won the lottery, I'd still continue to do what I'm doing," Bock said. "I love my life."

Credit: Times-Dispatch Staff Writer