If you're here for the puppet section, strap in folks there's a way to go yet.
From the age of 17 Sarah started her career coaching swimming, synchro and training lifeguards for the RLSS alongside Pool Plant Management for Sports Centres.
Working for noted swim schools such as The Elite Swimming Academy and balancing her own private adult tuition, It was true to say she spent more time in the water than out.
Although, always having a love for sea, from here she gained more interest in the underwater world and worked her way up to qualifying Instructor status in both Scuba and Freediving, teaching and managing dive schools in Malta, Thailand and the UK.
Sarah Specialised and was qualified to teach in but not limited to;
Ocean Conservation
Shark Conservation
Marine Ecology
Deep Diving
Search and Rescue
Wreck Diving
Additionally, a HSE Compliant Rescue Safety Diver for underwater filming /events and dabbling in technical diving in the form of Side Mount, Nitrox and Cave Diving.
Shark and Marine conservation being one of her special interests, she frequently ran talks at schools and youth groups about the above subjects and most notably the “Jaws Effect” and the negative impact Apex Predators have received through the media particularly in the last 50 years.
Although diving and freediving was considered more of a sport than a creative endeavor at the time; she always had a great interest in the fluid, poetic motion and freedom of being in water-regularly combined freediving with artistic movement before or after teaching classes “just for fun.” standing on the bottom of the pool.
In 2018 she saved up for her first silicone mermaid tail and began her journey interviewing for a traveling tank performance company and becoming a permanent member of the team, working as an underwater model between festivals.
From here the world really did open up to the world of performance, becoming professionally trained in fire eating, dance and fire breathing, burlesque, stunt performing and other niche entertainment practices.
In 2023 Sarah and her Business Partner in Chaos Lucy started “The Mermaid Tank” traveling the country offering bespoke fantasy entertainment with large prop installations, 3 mermaid tanks and now a solid team of 8 professional freedivers, entertainers and sound/Lighting technicians.
Check out the bottom of the Page for professional highlights.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PUPPETS?!
The puppet story is far less complex;
Like many children of the 90’s, Sarah grew up under the absolute chokehold of mildly threatening dark fantasy movies such as Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and The Never-Ending Story.
During the Covid pandemic Sarah found solace and entertainment in creating her first Blinking Shoulder Dragon Puppet: On a whim, my first customer found my puppet online and asked if she could have one specially made; so, almost quite by accident, Sarah fell into full time puppet making as a service, now her studio is situated in the heart of Milton Keynes.
Sarah has created puppets for various TV, Film and Events:
Most notably creating the Cyclops for the production of ‘Cyclops’ by The Cambridge Greek Play
The Dragon for the USAs production of Shrek, and even a custom shoulder puppet for the actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Wondrously these two facets of the business do fit together nicely, as Sarah and Lucy create all of their props and puppetry in house for The Mermaid Tank.
For more puppet highlights please check out my “WaterDragonStudios” Page
