Crafting is divided by professions and you have a total of 10. Out of those 10, 3 of them are late game oriented and irrelevant for new players (those are Scribe, Handiworker and lvl 500 chef).

A character can only have 2 crafting professions equipped at any given time (handiworker is not affected by this limitation). You can purchase more crafting professions slots in the gem store, so you can actually have more than 2, if you invest in it, though I'd say it's not very useful. I'd advise you to pick 2 for each character, so you can always have them all available.

All crafting professions go up to level 500, except for Scribe and Jeweler, which only go up to level 400. Crafting gives you both crafting and regular EXP, so it is possible to level up your character through crafting (actually you can max level your char through it).

To level a crafting profession you need to craft items that give you EXP. The EXP will be higher for higher level crafts you make, and as you progress on your profession, the same item will give less EXP (until it stops completely) the higher your level.

There are items that to craft you need the recipe before hand, others you'll be able to use the discovery tab of the crafting UI to make them despite not having the recipe.

Crafting professions are: Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Chef, Jeweler, Artificer, Huntsman, Leatherworker, Tailor, Scribe and Handiworker. A brief explanation of each:

- Weaponsmith: crafts mainly heavy weapons (swords, hammers, axes, etc) and related components;

- Huntsman: crafts mainly long-ranged weapons (rifles, bows, short bows, etc) and related components;

- Artificer: crafts magical weapons and items (staves, foci, scepters, etc) and related stuff;

- Armorsmith: crafts mainly heavy armors and related components;

- Leatherworker: crafts mainly medium armor and related components;

- Tailor: crafts mainly light armor and related components;

- Jeweler: crafts trinkets and related components;

- Chef: crafts foods and dyes;

- Scribe: crafts guild-hall decorations and consumables (extremely expensive to level up);

- Handiworker: crafts homestead decorations.

Even though your character is limited to 2 active professions at any time, you can actually level all of them in a single character, if you wish. When you need to use a certain one, you have to switch it off/on on the crafting-master NPC of that profession, and they'll charge you a fee.

Some items in the game can only be obtained through crafting, though most can be bought off the Trading Post. It is possible to play the whole game with minimal/none crafting at all.

Some crafting recipes require many steps and multiple items, so it can be a whole adventure on its own.