You really don't have to worry about getting the artisan's gear as they don't provide that big of an upgrade over AF pieces. However, if you're under-leveled, don't have a lot of melds done and are missing a lot of level 50 cross class abilities, you'll likely have to use some HQ materials. I tested this a while back (using no level 50 cross class abilities):

Item: Level 51 Mythrite Nugget using all HQ mythrite sand and an NQ mythrite ore.
BSM Level: 50
Gear: Combination of i55 AF gear and i60/70 artisan's gear
Craftmanship: 346
Control: 341
CP: 366 with food (I did not use comfort zone, but CP was stretched very thin so I had to rely on a high enough number of good procs)

In this case, progress can be completed with a single rapid synthesis and 2x careful synthesis 1. I used a GS and AT finisher and got 100% at IQ9 and 92% at IQ8.

I've replicated this using a simulator and looks like you can use manipulation up to 3 times depending on RNG (and your starting CP).

If I had used byregot's blessing instead of advanced touch and had a starting quality of 1000, I'd end up with 80% on 8 stacks of IQ (89% if innovation is used as well). Once you reach level 51, however, 0 starting quality is fine since your level is matched, provided that you have Byregot's blessing.