About Us

So yeah, I’m not going to pull at your heart strings and give you a heartbreaking story of a kid born into a poor family, with a hard upbringing, in the mean streets of Chicago. That would be stretching it. Actually, I like to think of my story as fairly typical for most folks in this country. 

Born in Puerto Rico to hard-working parents, we moved to the States to pursue the American dream. Grew up in Chicago and New York as a kid and after graduating high school, joined the U.S. Army, because to be honest, I was a punk and I needed the discipline. Trained as military policeman and was immediately deployed to the Middle East in support of Desert Storm. After years in the service, I re-joined my family who migrated down to Central Florida.

After several odd jobs, I settled into a career in IT and went back to school. After several years working the typical Monday through Friday, office job. Things started to be a grind and got boring. I had to find something new to do. I decided to tap into my creative side and get back into something I truly enjoyed.

I started to get into woodworking and I was hooked immediately. I began crafting unique gifts for family and friends and the response was phenomenal. I then decided to add a little technology to my love of woodworking. I added a hobby laser engraver to my repertoire and this added an amazing amount of creative versatility to my products. I took it up a notch and decided to invest in a much larger and powerful C02 laser cutter and engraver. This opened up my world to an amazing number of creative possibilities. It also afforded me the opportunity to involve my own family into the business. My daughter, for example, is my lead artist and hand paints many of my creations.

This venture made me remember the importance of family, friends, pride and never forgetting your roots. That’s why I decided on incorporating “Taino” in the name. Taino’s were an Arawakan Indian tribe predominantly located on the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba. Columbus wrote, after encountering the Taino’s in 1492:

“They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will…they took great delight in pleasing us…They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal…Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people…They love their neighbors as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing.”

Then he and the Spaniards came back and wiped them all out.

Pretty morbid I know but that’s not the point I’m trying to make. Like my ancestors, my family and I have always been known to have these same qualities and we take pride in that. It’s how we were raised and how we raised our own children. This pride goes behind every creation and how we treat our customers and I hope it truly shows.