Since 2018, Mafalda Costa has been experimenting with beeswax, oil paint and pigments to make her own oil pastels. At first, this was a way for her to have more control over her personal drawings, but a few months ago she decided to make them available to others and started Io.

At a first sight, Io’s Instagram page (@_ii__oo_) looks like a receiver of otherworld messages, filled with supernatural colour combinations and glitched scans of naive drawings and mysterious objects. Each pastel kit has a symbolic title referring to natural elements, galactic events or mystical actions, that are rooted in her admiration for the cosmos and dreams.

Described as ‘magical oil sticks’, one can believe in their supernatural qualities by observing the unpredictable marks made by their unique textures and colour particles. For Mafalda, these oil sticks are more than drawing materials, but tools allowing one’s to express their most complex inner feelings. Mafalda Costa currently lives and works in Porto from her self built Io lab.

How did you start Io?

I started experimenting with beeswax, oil paint and pigments, making my first attempts at producing oil sticks to draw, paint, play with. I was curious about the materials and what I could do with them. There are still many possibilities working with these materials, which also provides some magic to my process of drawing and making things appear.

Seeing my friend’s work and sharing a studio in and out of school also influenced this urge to start making oil sticks and sparked the idea of making pieces with pigments and beeswax. So I decided to try it out and start to make experiments in my own personal beeswax lab. I am drawn to a laboratory way of doing things and making my own rituals.

Can you share some of the rituals you go through in your personal beeswax lab?

The making of the sticks is connected to the other things I make in the studio. My research, small drawings in my notebook, my diary entries or dream log are part of my process, like small rituals. It is all merged together in a formless bubble, I do not make a clear distinction between the process of making an oil stick or a drawing. I started making them so that I could have a bit more control of the colours and textures in my drawings. It made sense to me to blend my practices, it kind of transformed the way I do things. Sometimes, it is a drawing that gives me an idea for new sets of colours and ‘mixtures’, sometimes it is an explosion or a tree, or a flower or a candle…

I am attracted to natural patterns, textures, sensations; Volcanoes, wind, water, rain, dirt, fire, flowers, mushrooms, snow, etc. They all give me hints of what I want to make. So the ritual for making the sticks blends with painting and drawing, or making videos, or objects.

How did it feel for you to start sharing something so personal and special to your own practice? Do you also find inspiration in what other people create with the sticks?

I have been making the oil sticks since late 2018. Last October, I decided to open a page on Instagram to share the sticks online and sell them to anyone who would like to have them. It is still very recent, it feels good and weird at the same time — people can make drawings with something I made with my own hands. When I make them it feels like I am making a special potion. I mix different colours to make them multicoloured and I play with their plasticity; they can also be monochrome but with particles of different colours emerging inside. This has an effect in the way you draw with them, it is as if the material has some control over the direction of your drawing. I like to deal with the surprises I get while using them and it feels good to know other people can also make images appear.

Earlier you were talking about your interest in natural elements like dirt and fire, and many of your pastel kits have names related to these themes, like ‘Volcano fire moon’ or ‘Plant healer’. Do you plan to add other natural elements in the making of the sticks in the future?

I have done some research about rocks that can be ground into powder, transforming them into natural pigments. I would really like to experiment with that process, it would be an exciting element to add to the magical side of making the sticks. I believe that all the natural elements are connected to what I make, or to what I want to make. The magic I'm talking about is within nature. Have you ever looked at pictures of volcanoes? That is what I would like to make.

Io is one of the moons of Jupiter; with over 300 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active object in the solar system. : )

Would you say that your magical sticks evoke this other world in Io? Maybe with supernatural properties?

Yes, I would hope so... This other world is not so far from our reality/tangibility. It belongs to the same universe as the one in our dreams, our feelings, our drawings - I connect it to our existence. Evoking what I feel is real; the act of making things is kind of supernatural by itself — magical actions.