Little Compton artist Ian Silvia, of Fried Glass Studios, has begun a month-long residency at Westport Woods.

Silvia, who works primarily in glass, metal and stone, will be working in Westport Sunday and Monday, August 20, 21, 27 and 28, concentrating his work there in metal and stone. The residency, which concludes Saturday, Sept. 2 with fabrication demonstrations and a concluding presentation, is a collaboration of the Westport Land Conservation Trust the Westport Cultural Council, made possible with support from the Helen Ellis Charitable Trust.

Silvia has been drawn to art since he was a child, and got into the field after briefly considering culinary school. The ancient mediums of glass, metal and stone are endlessly challenging and interesting, he said, requiring patience, planning and careful attention.

“Working with stone and metal and glass requires planning, sometimes weeks long, in order to envision the final product and then work out the steps to make it a reality,” he said in a recent interview with Merri Cyr of the Westport Cultural Council.

“There’s a thrill when a piece is complete and is what I planned. At the end, that’s where the spontaneity is. You’ve set everything up, envisioning what this piece is going to look like and at the very end, it’s either going to be that or it’s not. And then it’s the make or break moment. When it’s something I made for the first time, it is exhilarating. And you’re going to learn something from those pieces every single time. You know, this is what I want to make. This is my end goal. This is how I’m going to approach it. You kind of follow along with what the glass is telling you. It’s a conversation with the material. That’s what I like about it.