OMG I could go on and on and on and on about crafts in wiz. First of all, crafting is fun but it is not for everyone. Some find it boring which I guess it can be because sometimes you hafta spend a long time running around looking for reagents or farming for gold to buy what you need or even asking a friend to take you to the recipe giver if you still havent quested to the place you need to get to for that recipe or reagent. That said, crafting is super fun and can lead to great rewards. If you have a question or would like my help: crafts@wiz101help.com or use the link at bottom of page. Consult yer wizard's handbook for basics of crafting.
For example, most wizards like to use 2 or more schools of magic. Well, if you focus on 2 schools there is great crafted gear for you from recipe vendors throughout the spiral. I will be posting lists of all the different recipe vendors and their recipes or the primary skewls their recipes are for. keep in mind, you will hafta get some of yer crafts done in order to be able to buy some of these recipes and I will be posting requirements as well as tips and pointers to get you going in the right direction.
Another gr8 thing about crafting: you can make HOUSES and housing items that are far more unique than the ones you can buy (for houses) or are dropped (for housing items) aside from the drop statues (which are hecka sweet). The two houses that are available for crafting are the GH watchtower hall and the CL observatory. Both are quite the challenge with the CL one beating out the GH one in difficulty by a great deal. The hard part for the CL observatory is in the sunstones, but well cover all that as we go along.
And finally, I have crafted stuff for others in wizard101. The items you craft can be sold at bazaar and someone else can then buy the item(s). This means you could 'gift' someone a very nice housing item or even super awesome gear. This, imo, is a much more meaningful gift than the crowns items (although most people want the crowns items, but hey we dont all have crowns do we). Continuing along this line of thinking, you could always 'sell' the items for profit to someone who you know and trust to 'pay' you in whatever way they would like to. I crafted a full set of cl gear for a death wiz (death/fire) and he gifted me a mount. He requested more stuff for his other wizards and has said he will think of a better payment if we go forward with that. How does that make crafting sound?
So, here is the link to my notes for you to get yer crafts done from WC to CL (thats from the novice crafts to the Grand Master Artisan, commonly referred to as GMA if you have open chat). The Reagent List isnt a complete list to all reagents in the spiral, only the ones pertinent to yer main craft quests. I am working on a comprehensive list and there is a page that has all the info on them in the wizard 101 central wiki but I am hoping to improve on it.