If you can get yourself sealants from ixal dailies, you can ask someone to make you the artisan offhand. While you can reach the 2 or 3 stars recipes without the artisan offhand, the offhand will let you do so without having to fully meld most of your gears or accessories (they are the cheapest upgrade i can think of as alternative for melding). After that you can try get the artisan main hand tool.