Yes it does feel a bit slow. I did recently learn an ability called hasty hand which instantly finishes a craft but gives lower skill points and experience, also if it fails you usually lose everything. It does have a high success rate though. It's quite handy if you just want to make something quickly. I learnt this at rank 15 Blacksmith, at least i think it was 15. Depending on what you make you can spam this and still get good SP.