Austin Hall has been an artist since childhood. His mother, Sylvia, recalls him turning anything at his disposal into a canvas, whether it was stack of boxes and a roll of duct tape, mud from the driveway, or a crate full of Legos.

But the 17-year-old Barrington High School student’s current and most impressive medium involves something not many teens usually get involved with — welding.

This past Thursday, Hall had his official artistic debut at The Collaborative in Warren, showing off various sculptures and figurines that he had fabricated over the past couple years.

“It went very well,” Austin said of the event. “I got to talk to a lot of people interested in my creations and I got to show them off, and I made a few successful sales.”

He got interested in welding at an even younger age, appreciating how armor and tanks from past wars were welded together.

“I realized I could build armor for myself, which I did eventually do,” he said. “That’s how I became interested in welding. It went from armor to making action figures from cool movies to, ‘Oh, I can make my own figurines from my own mind.’”

Austin honed his crafting and building skills in Barrington, enjoying birthday parties and many outings at Professor Gizmo’s Workshop.

“At times he would follow what they were building but most times he would go completely on his own track, and they completely supported that,” Sylvia said.

At 15, Austin got set up at The Steel Yard in Providence, a nonprofit industrial arts center, taking a course that granted him access to welding equipment and a space to organize and fabricate his creations. Now he goes a couple times a month with his dad to work on his projects.

“When they leave I cannot wait for them to come back and see what he’s come home with,” said Sylvia.

The artistic process for Austin involves a lot of visualization. He’ll see a piece of scrap and immediately imagine what it could be used for — like a gear for a helmet, a piece of pipe for a weapon — and the rest seemingly falls into place as he builds.

“I have this blueprint in my mind,” he said. “It showed I really do have that ability. I can put pieces on a table and just put them together.”

What results are unique pieces that are more than just an assembly of parts.

“He’s a builder and a designer but he’s also a storyteller, and you can see it in every piece he builds,” Sylvia said. “They exude a personality and emotion. These metal characters are almost in motion. It’s like having a character in your home. Each one has a name and a personality that goes with it.”

Austin said that, although he has had many favorite pieces, he cherishes one of his first projects the most — a pirate character he made for a friend based on the video game, Sea of Thieves.

“I heard one of my friends was sick with the flu, and I felt really bad and wanted to do something for him,” he said.

Going forward, Austin said that he plans to go into video game design, but plans to continue his welding and artistic endeavors moving forward. He would love to go back to The Collaborative to share his work with even more people.

“I got to see a few new faces that I didn’t know were interested in my work, which really made me happy,” he said.