The centrifugal force is with her
When Jasmine Isaacson wants to relax, she throws clay.
“Making pottery is tactile and peaceful,” she said. “I don’t have to think about much, and when I’m done, I’ve created something of use.”
Wheel throwing is a method of forming clay into shapes on a potter’s wheel. It’s part simple mechanics — the centrifugal force of the spinning wheel inclines the clay to stretch and move outward — and part delicate control by the potter, who controls the clay with their hands.
Isaacson took her first pottery class as a teenager in Seattle but didn’t return to the craft until after college, when a family friend was giving away a pottery wheel. She found she had to take more classes to remaster the art of centering the clay.
“I grew up immersed in the arts,” she said. “My mother is an artist who works in glass casting. It’s a tough profession, so I knew I didn’t want to pursue a career in the arts. But I also had all these wonderful experiences and sources of inspiration. She had the tools for anything I was interested in.”
Isaacson fired her pieces at her mother’s kiln until she moved to the Bay Area a few years ago. Leaving Seattle also meant leaving behind many of her creations.
“That’s the thing about making pottery, you end up with a lot of stuff. Before I moved, I had a party and everyone got to take home a few pieces,” she said. “I still have a very full shelf in my garage. Most of what I make I give to family and friends.”
Isaacson was a community outreach specialist for the FBI before joining LLNL as an executive assistant in Strategic Deterrence, supporting the chief of staff.
“I enjoy everything about my role here,” she said. “This is an easy place to have a big impact. Everyone is so busy, so having someone to pay attention to the details goes a long way.”
She set up a home pottery studio that includes a kiln. Most of her weekends are devoted to pottery. Her wheel is outside, so the weather dictates her ability to throw. The clay dries too quickly on a hot summer day and doesn’t dry properly on cold, wet days.
Making pottery is usually a multi-day process. After Isaacson forms the clay into the desired shape, she lets it dry overnight until it’s leather-hard: stiff enough to work on without becoming distorted. The next day she places the shaped clay upside down on the pottery wheel and removes clay to shape the “foot” of the piece, a process known as trimming. On a recent weekend, she threw 25 cups.
While many of Isaacson’s creations are functional pieces, crafting each by hand allows her to customize and add artistic details. Sometimes she finds inspiration in unusual places — like the W-87 reentry cone.
“I saw a model of it not long after I joined the Lab. It was a fun challenge to make an enclosed form in a cone shape,” she said. “And then there is the added novelty for people who recognize what it is.”
For anyone interested in learning how to create pottery by throwing clay, Isaacson recommends taking a class at one of the many Bay Area pottery studios.
“Centering clay is really challenging,” she said. “You have to get a feel for it. The same goes for trimming, you must keep your piece perfectly centered as you trim. Everyone’s technique is a little different, so it’s worth trying different instructors. I learn something new every time I take a class, and working in a studio also means you don’t have to invest in costly equipment or deal with the extensive cleanup.”
One hazard of throwing clay is inhaling silica dust, which becomes airborne in dry clay and small dry particles. Free crystalline silica can scar lung tissue and cause irreversible loss of breathing capacity. This is why Isaacson sets up her pottery space outside.
As a potter, one of her goals is to learn the technique that artist Dave Shaner used in his Hanging Landscape pieces, which are closed clay spheres hung vertically.
“My parents have one of his Hanging Landscapes, but over the years a few pieces broke. I tried to remake it but didn’t quite get the technique right,” she said. “Very little has been written about Shaner’s process, but we do know he made the spheres by throwing clay. So, it’s going to be a lot of trial and error. I’m up for
the challenge.”
