New Zealand sheepskin 90×180 ink blue c.38

Indigo is the darkest of the four blue green shades in this line. The wool is dyed to an ink tone with no turquoise in it, so in shadow it passes for black while direct sun reveals the blue and a faint shimmer at the tips.

Dark blue earns its place where pale sheepskin would lose its looks quickly: beside a desk, in a study, next to a reading chair. It sits quietly in a room with dark furniture and asks nothing of the rest of the textiles.

• Material: natural New Zealand sheepskin
• Size: 90×180 cm (double)
• Colour: ink blue, indigo
• Wool: long, dense
• Backing: cream suede
• Care: hand wash, dry flat
• Item code: 35
• Price: about $275

Its cool neighbours differ clearly: the petrol sheepskin 90×180 leans towards turquoise and the emerald sheepskin 90×180 towards green. Indigo is the calmest and deepest of the three.

Because the size is set by two pelts joined at the spine, the outline is wavy rather than rectangular and 90×180 cm is measured across the widest points. The full natural selection is in natural hides.

In photographs indigo almost always looks lighter than it does in a room, because a camera lifts the shadows. In reality it is a very dark colour that sits close to black furniture.