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 can 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 the gifted rollers at this year’s festivities was Bryan “Roll BJT” Tomon, who stands out from his peers as a true visionary. 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-pound sea turtle.
“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 at attempting a shark, but then the next day, I turned it around and created a gingerbread man that was just a little bit easier in shape. But the puzzle pieces fell together once I figured out how it all goes together.”
Tomon’s Meteoric Rise to the Top
Tomon’s rise to the top of the competitive creative-rolling world was a quick 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 rolling for decades. He set aside time for daily challenges with new creative rolls to get a step ahead. “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. As Tomon describes it, creative rolling is learning how to roll different shapes into the blunt and working out how to combine them together differently to form a larger tapestry. Essentially, each blunt is molded into a specific shape and then patchworked together to form a larger, smokeable work of art.
“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.”
Tomon’s Inspirations for His Art
Tomon credits Tony Greenhand as his biggest inspiration for creative rolling due to his immense and intensive 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.”
“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.”
