Everquest 2: Moorgard clarifies Artisans!

In a thread on the official forums, Steve "Moorgard" Danuser drops in to clarify information on the Artisan:

Artisans can obtain base versions of the components they need for their craft from social structures in their city. This is true at all levels, so artisans can advance in skill making items without the interaction of adventurers.

However, some components needed to make higher-tier versions of items will only be found in dangerous parts of the world. For this reason, harvesting skills are given to adventurers so that they can confront those dangers and obtain the rare components. Those components are useless, of course, until you bring them to a talented artisan who can turn them into something useful.

Thus artisan skills are not dependent upon adventurers obtaining those harvestable components for advancement, but they are necessary for crafting the best items.

Check out the thread Here