Yeah, as a non-Jeweler, non-Cooking thing you should be getting the bulk of your crafting experience solely from the Discovery panel.
You get this by using the insignias. It's been a little while since I leveled my Artificer, but I think the best recipes to make cheaply were the Focus & Scepter, but I could be mistaken. So every time I got new insignias... or are they called something else? I think they are. Heck, I'll log in and see. No backspacing though, that's for quitters.
Inscriptions! That's it. And I made Tridents too, I had a buttload of metal to use. But yes, generally I'd make 3 of each inscription and then discover the recipes for the Trident, Focus, and Scepter for each. That was generally enough, though I would sometimes resort to making large batches of potions when the opportunity presented itself to be cost-feasible.