She left a corporate job to handcraft custom fishing nets

When the corporate life grew stale and the drumbeat of the Great Resignation grew louder, Tina Lewis cast her attention and artistic ability toward the unlikeliest product.

Lewis, 40, crafts custom, handheld fishing nets prized by fly fishermen from the Poconos to Sweden. Her business, the Wayward Trading Post, makes the nets out of Amish-sourced wood and epoxy in an eclectic Frankford warehouse filled with her art, weightlifting equipment, and an assortment of industrial power saws and sanders. A Fishtown resident, Lewis said she grew up in Delaware County, venturing into the outdoors often with her father, John, to fish, shoot, and hunt. Still, fly-fishing is as much an art as a hobby and Lewis says she’s still a novice.

“My core competency is the woodwork, art, and illustration,” she said.

While a fishing net isn’t as technical as say a custom violin or guitar, it’s a critical component of a fisherman’s arsenal. Few fisherman can relax until their catch is safely in the net. It’s the final step in a long process that begins with making fuzzy pieces of hair look like a fly. Lewis understands this, and also believes simple things can be beautiful as well. That’s why many of her nets have custom art of late: beloved pets, drawn by her, or mementos from the customer’s past, like military medals or coins, embedded into the wood.

“These are heirloom pieces, something the customers want to pass down from generation to generation,” she said.

Lewis took art classes as a child and later again as a student at Community College of Philadelphia but had no real formal training beyond that.

“I actually got into drawing by reading comics, drawing those characters and later, musicians, as I got into high school,” she said.

She worked in technology for a pharmaceutical company for years but yearned to turn art into a steady income. The business started when her husband, Justin, also a woodworker, built a custom net for a friend that they dubbed “the Fat Jake.” She added an illustration of a green trout and a bear, and people took notice. She founded the Wayward Trading Post in August 2019 and left the corporate job two years later.

“It started off slow but it’s really taken off,” she said.

Lewis declined to say how many nets she’s sold so far, but dozens hang in various stages and sizes in the warehouse. Strips of walnut and cherry wood abound there, too, waiting to be bent into shape. Lewis uses rubber netting, which makes it easier for fishermen to release their catch.

Each net takes weeks to finish, Lewis said, depending on how much custom art the buyer wants. Lewis said she sells nets anywhere from $100 to $1,000 depending on the size and amount of art work the customer wants included. Many of them are shipped to Europe, she added.

“It’s a perfect blend of the outdoors and art for me, which is what I grew up with,” she said.

Old artwork, including portraits of Bob Marley and Jerry Garcia, hang in the epoxy room alongside photographs of various trout species. Her father’s old sharpshooting trophies glimmer in the warehouse’s rafters, and Gertie, the one-eyed shop dog, is never far behind on the floor.

“I like to have reminders and inspiration around,” she said.

While nets are the top product, Lewis’ company also sells wooden boxes to store fishing flies, and is experimenting with gun stocks, cutting boards, coffee tables, and maybe even canoe oars. If it’s a flat, wooden surface, she’s interested.

“I have lists every day,” she said “of things I have to do and things I want to do, artistically.”