Joey Lavadour (Pendleton) is a Native basket weaver who uses the full-turn twining method. He was raised around Pendleton, where he was always around weaving. Lavadour learned much of his technique from Carrie Sampson, an elder at Umatilla.
Bio
Joseph "Joey" Lavadour is an extraordinarily talented basket weaver, specializing in baskets and bags made from Pendleton yarns. Lavadour grew up around Pendleton, where he was always around weaving. Although his aunt, Margaret Lavadour, was a basket weaver, he learned the intricacies of his craft from Carrie Sampson (Walla Walla), an elder at Umatilla. She taught him old-style weaving using dogbane cordage and bear grass. Sampson, he reported, always told him to "weave the colors of your dreams," and his were always bright colors. Lavadour, who is enrolled Walla Walla, also has Metis heritage. He makes a variety of basket styles and employs "full-turn" twining, which creates different designs on the inside and outside of his baskets and bags. His newest creation is a flap bag. By the time he was 18 and the first male weaver at Pendleton Mills, Lavadour had developed his own style. Lavadour teaches many classes and shares his designs with students. He’s also taught traditional cornhusk weaving at the Longhouse at Evergreen. Lavadour sells his beautiful work through the PDX Gallery in Portland. Lavadour is clear about what makes a good basket and sees weaving as "meditative, a state of prayer."
