Francesca Wezel, founder and creative director of Francesca's Paints, is wearing a randomly paint-splashed apron. 'People have wanted to buy it!' she says. It's testament to the hands-on nature of her craft. There's a little paint in her hair and nails, and she's justifiably suspicious of the clean artisan. 'You need to have a little bit of a paint spattering somewhere - it means you're using the product.'

Francesca is a colourist who makes bespoke paint. She and her business partner Camillo - with her much-loved Tibetan Terrier, Bubu, underfoot - have their office and workshop at the Battersea Business Centre. Inside the studio, she is looking hard at a little red box. There are pigments on her worktable, and the red on one of the cards is, to the naked eye, an absolute match. Francesca has a very good eye, though she always invites clients to her studio to discuss colours. 'I have so many clients who have a piece of fabric at home, and they come and talk to me and they say, "this colour is identical to my fabric", and they go back and they're miles off.' She's a meticulous record keeper, as, without a formula, a particular shade can be lost forever.

Born and raised in Italy, Francesca is a world wanderer and her travels inspire her colours. Namibia is one of the most beautiful countries I have seen in my life. It is the most incredible country of "nothingness", where colour is the most important thing. The arid landscape is brought to life in her Namibian Sands collection, with colours called Etosha, Spitzkop and Dune.

Many of her products are environmentally friendly: Eco Emulsion and Chalky Emulsion are lead free. The pigments she uses, whenever possible, are natural: red oxide yellow, ochre, burnt umber, raw umber and sienna. To simplify the creation process, she uses the pigments in a liquefied form. In Cameroon she was interested to see people using plants to colour paint. "I saw a plant cut, and a beautiful blue came out. There is great fascination to think that the locals still do things with plants."

It's not just the appearance and psychology of colour with which she is concerned. 'Colours in different countries mean different things... My dream is to write a book about the anthropology of colour.'

A favourite London place of Francesca's is the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, where she practises and, after training in France and India (a country for which she has a passion), teaches. A holiday in Antigua brought an epiphany about movement and its health benefits, which led her to yoga. 'Yoga is the thing that has had the greatest change and influence on my life.' Yoga has its own colours: yellow is the colour of learning. 'Orange is the colour of burning the ego, which is why Swamis wear orange.' The centre is painted with a special collection by Francesca's Paints, called Sadhana. The colours have Sanskrit names, translated by Francesca into English approximations. Another passion is dance. 'Modern dance is a continuation of yoga.' In particular she admires dancer Carlos Acosta, whom she has seen perform numerous times at the acclaimed Sadler's Wells Theatre in Islington.