 Sally
Preisig, founder of Mimics Productions, began her stage career whilst
still at school. She regularly took part in school plays and stage
productions and was invited to join the National Youth Theatre whilst in her 6th form. Sally also loved all aspects of sewing and design and studied at The Royal School of Needlework,
achieving a distinction in City & Guilds Embroidery Part 1, getting
involved in as many needlework and sewing classes and projects as she
could. Soon after successfully completing a Performance Arts degree at Middlesex University, Sally set up Mimics Productions.
Whilst
at Middlesex, Sally had learnt that on a performance Arts course there
is always a shortage of backstage crew. There was the gap in the
market, which Sally has turned into a career! As part of the course,
Sally had to act and sing on stage, which she loved, but much preferred
not to be seen! So she helped behind the scenes whenever she could! She
dabbled in puppetry, but had yet to realise that she had the talents to
become a successful TV puppet maker and TV puppeteer.
Continuing her love of all things back stage she joined Trestle Theatre Company,
spending 3 years as Company Stage manager, prop & costume maker and
also doing the odd bit of set design, winning the 'Time Out' Award for
best set design of 1990 with Trestle's show 'The Edge'..  In 1991 she left Trestle became props person for 'The Wild Bunch'
for Channel 4 TV and French TV station TF1. She was the TV prop maker
on the programme and also ended up assisting the three puppeteers on
set in Paris and doing bits of puppeteering on location back in the UK.
She loved her time so much with the puppets that after the filming had
finished she found out who had made the puppets for that programme. It
was John Thirtle of 'Playboard Puppets'.
Sally joined John's workshop as a workshop assistant and was also taken
on by his partner Ian Allen as a member of the new cast for their next
tour of 'Fun and Games on Button Moon'. When work in the workshop
hotted up she was taken from the tour to assist, on all sorts of
different productions and on mammoth projects - two commercials for
'Robinsons Fruit Drink' and three TV series for Carlton of 'The Spooks
of Bottle Bay'. Through all those busy times she was unselfishly taught
nearly everything she knows about puppets!
Since then, she
hasn't stopped making puppets and soon diversified into designing and
making character costumes and large mascot costumes as well as plenty
more TV puppeteering and voicing on TV.  In
1994 Sally got her first big break for BBC's 'Playdays' performing the
puppet and voice of Peggy Patch. Her three and a half years with
Playdays was great fun and was disappointed when the programme wasn't
recommissioned in 1997.
It was during the years as Peggy
Patch that Sally started working with her Playdays colleagues Iain
Lauchlan and Will Brenton on their 'Fun Song Factory' videos, produced
by their company Tell-tale Productions. Sally was the puppeteer for
many of the Fun Song Factory characters and she made, voiced and
puppeteered 'Sally The Cat'. She was also their prop and puppet
designer and maker and made the character costumes of 'Ozzy Octave' and
'Bump'.
 Her years with Tell-tale lead her to being in the team that devised the 'Tweenies'
for the Cbeebies. She designed and made the original prototype dolls
and all the original Tweenie television character costumes and puppets
and was given the job of voicing and animating 'Bella'.
Since Tweenies, Sally has worked on GMTV's - 'MacDonald's Farm' and BBC's 'Cbeebies' - 'The Shiny Show' - Sally built the three puppets and was the original 'Dogsby' and she was the original 'Bits' on 'Bits and Bobs'. Sally was also the puppet builder of- 'Superbaby' for Story Makers.
She
has voiced two sets of singing and story cassettes for Marks and
Spencer, has voiced and sung on 21 different Parragon children's rhyme
and story books, has recorded characters for Legoland and was the voice
of Miki the cat on a Sooty touring stage show.
Her first
Production Manager job was making a video for Hamleys and their Bear
Factory franchises. Also enjoying the opportunity to design the two
sets, make the 4 character costumes and voice the two female characters!
Over the years Sally has designed, made, puppeteered and voiced many
puppet characters for children's TV and made some weird and wonderful
props and character costumes for TV and theatre as well as numerous
private commissions including brand character mascots, sports mascot
costumes, character heads, animal mascots and puppets for music videos.
She absolutely loves her work as it is so varied. She enjoys a creative
challenge! She would have done none of the above without the huge
support from her husband and family!
She has been a full British Actors Equity member since 1988.
Sally is a member of The British Puppet & Model Theatre Guild and is included in the Directory of Professional UK Puppeteers & UK Puppet Makers published by The Puppet Centre Trust.
In 2003 Sally also set up a second company from her workshop - Crafty Kids Ltd.
Designing and creating craft and string puppet making kits for kids
over 4. In 2010 she handed over the running of this successful company
to another company in order to concentrate more fully on her real
passion, Mimics Productions puppet makers, character mascot costume
creation and soft prop maker skills. Sally and her talented team always
welcome new commissions.
View Mimics' Character Costumes, Character Puppets, Soft Props and Testimonials pages
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