Shell Shock: The Stunning Joint Art of Roll BTJ

The Raw World Rolling Competition has become a thrilling spectacle of creativity, capturing the imaginations of rolling enthusiasts since its inception in 2021. Contestants nationwide are given the opportunity to showcase their unique skills: crafting smokable art pieces in the shape of some of our favorite pop culture characters, crazy geometric designs, wild animals and much more. Among these gifted rollers, Bryan “Roll BJT” Tomon, stands out as a true luminary. In 2021, he won the hearts of fans with his rendition of the iconic Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo and in 2023, he once again soared to the top of the competition, claiming the coveted first place spot with an impressive 22-lbs. sea turtle.

I caught up with Tomon to discuss his latest artistic cannabis journey. “I’ve always been pretty decent at rolling joints and blunts, and my friends saw a creative roll-on Instagram and asked me to try,” Tomon says. “At first, I failed miserably attempting a shark and then the next day turned it around and created a gingerbread man that was just a little bit easier shape. But once I figured out how it all goes together, the puzzle pieces fell together.”

Tomon’s rise to the top of the competitive creative-rolling world was a swift one, having only just started the craft in early 2021. “I competed at the World Rolling Championships in April of that year, so it was only three months of figuring it out and then I was right into competing.”

At 23, Tomon says he felt an immense pressure to “catch-up” to his peers, some of whom had been smoking and rolling for decades. To get a step ahead, he set aside time for daily challenges with new creative rolls. “I was doing one every day for months. I was just doing them for fun; it allowed me to catch up in terms of experience because I was doing different shapes every day,” he says. “Creative rolling is basically learning how to roll different shapes and working out how to combine them together differently. I’d roll some pieces one day and then the next day, I’d wake up and take it all apart and start a new piece. I’d reuse the same weed so I could practice, but occasionally, I’d smoke one. At first, you just don’t know how the smoke works and how to get it to properly flow in something that has different angles. There’s a lot of trial and error and wasting a lot of weight.”

The challenge of ensuring proper airflow within his elaborate yet delicate creations was one of the many hurdles Tomon faced, prompting him to examine the fine line between form and function. “The way that I look at creative rolling is similar to how a chef would see it; we’re making consumable art,” he says. “It’s never meant to be kept forever. You’re not going to go to a five-star restaurant, buy a meal and then just leave it in your fridge, you know what I mean? It’s meant to be eaten. And my rolls are meant to be smoked. At the end of the day, it’s art; but it’s a consumable art. For me, half of the satisfaction of rolling a piece for someone is seeing everyone’s reaction when it gets lit up. People don’t normally smoke something that crazy.”

When asked about his distinctive rolling style, Tomon describes two primary approaches: “There are two different types of creative rollers: Ones that do a molding where it’s a little bit more like paper mâché and the ones that roll everything by hand. I roll a big shape and then I take a razor blade and then start cutting away.”

Tomon credits Tony Greenhand as his biggest inspiration for creative rolling due to his level of detail. “Tony goes above and beyond for every single piece,” he says. “It wasn’t just paper on the outside; he’d use wax and keef in the grooves, and divots in his rolls. You could really see the detail work and that’s kind of what caught my eye.”

Tomon’s passion for rolling extends beyond competition and recognition. He views his work as an art form and is excited to see where this vocation takes him as the East Coast continues trending toward legalization. “To me, it’s art,” he says. “Money comes second.”

Outside of rolling for competitions, Tomon also takes on commissions and production-scale pre-roll orders. However, differing state laws around legalization impact the limits of where he can conduct business. “I do a lot of events in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey,” he says. “Adult-use cannabis is legal in New York and New Jersey, but Pennsylvania is medical only—and vaporization only, too, so I can’t partner with dispensaries there.”

Tomon says that, overall, he tries to cater his rolls towards the smoking experience as opposed to pure artwork. “The art is great but at the end of the day, if it doesn’t smoke properly, then I failed,” he says. “When you smoke these pieces, you must bring such a big group that when you pass it around, it takes forever to wait for that thing to come back. Sometimes, I’ll make a piece that looks like it’s one piece, but it comes apart. Multiple pieces are passed around so it’s more like a community experience: ‘Oh there’s the leg, it’s coming around!’ So, it’s like the balance of art and functionality and finding that fine line.”