About

My name is Christel LeBlanc and I’m an interdisciplinary designer and artist working under the name Forest Friend. Quillboy is a jewelry and leather brand inspired by the beautiful wilderness, treacherous coastlines, richly varied geology, lost culture and esoteric secrets of my home, Nova Scotia.

My heritage is Acadian, a mix of French and Scottish settlers with native Mi’kmaw people, and northern European, from the Baltic coast of what is now Szczecin, Poland. My Acadian ancestors were expelled from the Grand Pré region on the Bay of Fundy in 1755 and returned to Nova Scotia years later to settle in Tusket Wedge, near Yarmouth.

My work is influenced by folk designs and materials from around the world, specifically Japanese leatherwork, jewelry, fashion and traditional packaging, and the leather, bone and quill artistry of indigenous North/South America and Nordic Europe.