(NewsNation Now) — After years of pursuing an acting career, Lisa Asano said things began to really slow down during the pandemic. 

So she tried something new: pursuing a passion for making things out of clay and posting videos of the process to social media. Now she has over a million followers on TikTok in addition to a thriving community across social media.

“It was pretty shocking – I would have never thought this would have ever been a career now,” Asano said. “I’ve been pursuing acting for so long and all the sudden it just changed directions.”

She said the work isn’t always picture-perfect as it seems on social media, but that doesn’t usually make it into her posts. 

“I don’t really get attached to my pieces because once you do that heartbreak is so much more devastating,” she said.

As her community continues to grow, Asano says she still isn’t selling her art, preferring to give it away to friends and fans instead. But she keeps the funny looking ones for herself.