An auto engineer became a full-time potter in L.A. Thank her high school art teacher

Throwing pottery on a wheel can be a love-hate relationship. “Many people fall in love with clay when they take their first class,” Chernoff says as she sits at the potter’s wheel in her Pasadena studio. “That was when it all changed, and I started making sets, which I’m very grateful for now.” “No matter how many years I throw, there is always something to learn,” Chernoff says. The studio changed everything because I could have studio sales and meet clients.” Buoyed by her mechanical abilities and hard work ethic — “I’m a Leo,” she says with a shrug — Chernoff likes that her income is under her control. “My motivation is that I’m a hustler and a super hard worker.” Chernoff intensely crafts a plate on the wheel at her Pasadena studio.