An air of busy calm greets me as I walk onto the top floor of Bristol’s Cameron Balloon factory. Considering this company is the largest manufacturer of hot air balloons in the world, my novice expectations of behemoth machinery raging back and forth in huge production lines are somewhat undone by the sight of six women sitting at industrial sewing machines, dotted around the farthest edges of the vast room, quietly stitching. No cacophony of machinery, just the steady thrumming of needle through fabric, bobbins spinning, the occasional tut as unwieldy material is hefted further in from the huge mounds stretched out before each machinist. Read the rest of the article on the Bruichladdich website.
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We Made It: Cameron Balloons
Business is ballooning for a Bristol company that trades in hot air
The steady thrumming of needle through fabric: a seamstress at Cameron Balloons in Bristol
Emily Tyrrell
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