
Laura by Mia Mäkilä, 2009.

Here I am with samples of dirt, sand, branches, gravel and rocks
that we collected on the beach and brought home, to simulate
the rocky beach where Pete Martell found Laura Palmer,
in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, one foggy morning in 1989.

Here in my studio (that’s also my kitchen), we created a platform
for the beach of a black plywood board (the back of an old IKEA
bookshelf) and some newspapers to protect the floor from the mess.

Then we added the gravel and stones and mixed them up.

After this, Jimmy sprayed on some water to make the beach damp.

Then, we applied sand and dirt and some reed and branches
(not showing in this picture) and mixed it together with the
gravel and stones. The beach was ready – right on my kitchen floor!

Time for Laura Palmer to make the beach meaningful! Domenique
was wrapped in plastic – as Martell described her, and I wrapped
her white tape just like the real wrapping and I coloured the plastic wrap
with some soya, butter and oil to make it seem dirty and used.

The result was stunning and very realistic! Domenique did a great job with the
make up too. And she didn’t complain once about the wrapping or lying on the
rocks. She’s very professional and fun to work with!