How to start crafting?

For sagecrafting, you will first need to find some shards, for example; fire, ice, protection, physical, etc. There are also different quality shards for crafting better gems, these include; cloudy, lambent, pristine.
Take your shards to a sagecrafting altar, which are located all over amalur, especially in cities. When standing next to the altar, press the f key as usual to access it, you will then be presented with two choices; craft gems or remove gems (takes full sagecrafting mastery to remove gems from sockets). When craft gems is selected, you will be presented will many choices for types of gems to craft; weapon slot, armor slot, utility slot, epic gems, and upgrade shards (can upgrade cloudy shards into lambent and into pristine).

With one of these selected, a menu will be presented to select which shards you want use, and when you chose two shards, it will show you what the end result would be if you craft them together.

Can make gems to increase armor, have mana or health regen, resistances, etc.. it's great!

I have not done much blacksmithing yet, but if you go to a blacksmithing forge, it will tell you what basic components you need to make something. You can salvage items at the forge, which is deconstructing them and gaining their parts. Try this with of the normal (white label) items to get some components if needed.
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"Keep your eyes open to new wonders and you shall find a desire for wonder born within yourself." -Alexander: Reign the Conqueror