to answer your question regarding grinding xp
i took 3 months to get master tailor but i did not grind continuously for 3 -4 days to get it...it is my chosen profession so i spent time building a customer base and it paid off...its very rewarding...that being said...the following applies to leveling quickly if you chose to do so...when i did need to grind quickly to get to a certain skill box heres what i did:
from novice tailor i grinded a combo of ribbed shirts and tipless gloves up to casual wear 3. then i grinded cloaks (288 XP) and as i gained xp i trained in the field wear tree all the way up to field wear 4. i then crafted cartrige belts to fill out the rest of tailor (299 xp).
keep in mind that this can be done very quickly..none of the above items need components or custom resources...the cloaks do need hide but i found hide easy to get in quantity...
as for the tailor profession...combined with some decent merchant (like 3040 or higher mgmt) u can build a very nice business...i have a steady stream of customers and although i dont have millions of credits accumulated yet..im sure i will soon...factories are useles except for the components...no one need 500 black casual shirts lol unless u get some uniform business...the components u make and dont need can be sold for massive profits to other tailors (1% of players prior to holo-crap) and armorsmiths as well...the social interaction is fun and i even have plenty of time to do other things...once i obtained master, i could not run through coronet or theed w/o being asked to craft something...just whipped out droid (get a couple with the stations and storage) and crafted away...i formulated a simple pricing structure that ensured excellent profits while still being reasonably priced...
as for harvesting...get the best chemical harvesters u can find with the best ratio of extraction rate to maint and harv fiberplast..u need lots of it...also, i found that harvesting polymer all the time rather than any of the other chemicals was the best route because many items require polymer rather than random chemical...metal is also required in variuos forms....copper for some of the high end items and steel as well...certain backpacks require special steel which was all easy to find... MAKE A HIDE FRIEND lol there are a few items that require certain hide from certain planets...and a few items that need certain gemstones, again easy to find...NOW..i know this is long, but a few more comments...experimentation is non existent so dont worry about any resource attributes...only recently did i look for decay resist but its still irrelevant...that makes buying bulk resources cheaper...it doesnt matter for grinding first of all and secondly, when u set up business to sell items the quality is irrelevant...get some high quality crafting tools...failures are a pain in the ***...i recently crafted 14.70 quality tools (im master artisan as well) in mass quantities...previuosly 14.55 was highest...get 4 or 5 clothing/armor tools at those rates and failures will be greatly reduced...as a precaution...add 10% to the amount of resources u buy to account for failures anyway...well i hope this all helps...if u want to discuss anything in-game my info is below...enjoy and have fun
cygnusaa (sunrunner)
master tailor, master artisan, merchant 4044, pistoleer 0300, medic 0000
i live in Southwind 1000m SW from Tyrena shuttle B