Raised by a pair of 1980s RISD graduates and toy designers in Connecticut, Kira Melville has embraced her creative engineering skills for as long as she can remember. Melville spent her childhood exploring the possibilities of artistic expression before heading to Carnegie Mellon in 2014. While in college, Kira noticed a distinct issue amongst her friends – their bongs were disgusting. Naturally, this inspired her to craft a solution tailored to their hygiene (or should I say high-giene) concerns. She constructed an easy-to-clean bong made of entirely sustainable materials, and her invention gained popularity, leading to the inception of Tiny Green Trees, Melville’s handmade, sustainable bong business. Despite her early success with bong-building, Melville went on to explore various artforms, including her award-winning 3D installations, functional sculptures, and 2D paintings. After working as an artist, performer, and entertainer following her graduation in 2017, Kira took a two-year journey to Bangkok, where she taught Kindergarten. Given the fluctuations in marijuana laws around this time, she took a step back from cannabis-crafting and focused on immersing herself in Thailand’s culture.
When she returned to a more weed-friendly US in 2022, she doubled-down on her efforts to expand Tiny Green Trees. Melville pioneered more creative bong concepts, including color-changing materials, salt crystals, and LGBTQ+ inclusive designs. She conducted in-depth research about the best types of silicon to use for cannabis consumption and even had a few TikToks go viral, driving traffic to her business. However, once Melville became a teacher stateside and worked to further grow her customer-base, she learned that stigma would prove to be a major obstacle. When I visited her studio to learn more about her, we had a profound discussion and identified a question that is likely embedded in the minds of artists and educators across the country: How can teachers engage in authentic artistic expression while navigating the expectations to be a role model for their students? Since starting Tiny Green Trees, Melville has encountered obstacles directly related to the criminalization of independently-owned marijuana businesses. She initially sold her bongs on a website called Witchsy, known as an “uncensored” craft-selling platform. Unfortunately, the site eventually ceased to exist, and Melville turned to Etsy to run her business. Not surprisingly, soon after listing the bongs on her page, she was met with a lifetime ban from the platform for selling “drug paraphernalia.” Melville has run into similar barriers on Shopify, Amazon, and most other platforms meant for independent vendors. The sculptor shares, “I’m getting my masters in education, so I’ve not had much time to market them.” Because Melville spends much of her time in the classroom, she also has not had the resources to secure or even identify the correct permits to sell her bongs with impunity.
Kira’s struggle to set up shop speaks to a deeper issue within the marijuana industry. Even with recreationally friendly weed laws, the freedom to consume, grow, and distribute marijuana is still preserved for wealthy, land-owning US citizens. Independent vendors are excluded from the legal cannabis industry, and it requires a substantial investment of time and money to legally sell weed-related products. Still, this is only one dimension of the complex challenges hampering Melville’s ability to grow her business. Settling into her role as an elementary school art teacher left her feeling unsettled in her identity as a sustainable cannabis sculptor. After getting backlash for a previous interview, Melville had to “scrub the internet” for any evidence of her bong sculptures for fear that her school system would not approve of her entrepreneurial endeavours. Melville adds, “All my other art has my name on it, but I had to stop putting it on my bongs once I started teaching.” The strict standards that society places upon teachers to uphold what should be personal values often leads them to feel like their artistic expression is suppressed, and there is an air of shame surrounding their creative identities. Beyond the issue of censorship, Melville feels that she is unable to be authentic with her students about her artform. “It’s weird to tell my students that I have a business selling art because they always ask to see them, and I can’t show them what my sculptures look like.”By stifling our educators’ creativity, we may be preventing them from being true role models who can embrace all aspects of themselves and perhaps even generate additional income in the process. •
Although our conversation addressed some of her hardships, Melville mentioned how much she appreciates the close-knit community in Providence. Moving forward, she is looking to pursue more maker’s market opportunities to promote and sell her bong sculptures. To support Melville’s artistic sustainable enterprise in the meantime, you can visit her brand new website at misstinygreentrees.com.
