Guide to Handicrafts
Handicrafts won't make you as much money as other production skills will at lower ranks, but it really takes off once you get to the higher ranks.
Job class selections for levelling Handicrafts are limited. The only low-level job that has handicrafts as a favored skill is Medicine Trader. Medicine Trader also has luxury food trading as a favored skill, which is a useful one when levelling Handicrafts. Food Trading, Wares Trading, and Alcohol Trading are also good ones to have. Later on, the majority of the things you'll be processing will be collection goods, so it's a very good idea to get this and begin using it early on.
As far as books go, you're going to need four, and possibly 5 depending on your tastes. First, you'll need to get the Complete Seasonings book (found in Palma's item shop) and Brewery Secrets (found in Hamburg's item shop). Shipwright's Basic Craftbook is also a good one to get (found in many places). Later on, you'll want to get the Historical Crafts Guide (Which is found in Cairo for 500k as an investment reward). You'll also want Brewery Secrets 2 by R8. Brewery Secrets 2 is only available from Montpeiler for investing 800k in Europe, which presents a problem for a non-French player (the other place to get it is Habana for the same amount). So you might have to buy this one from a player. It is a highly recommended book though, it will enable you to blow through the last two ranks (relatively speaking). Later in the game, it's worth your time to get the various colored gem cutting books (Blue from Hormuz, Red from Diu or Ceylon, Yellow from Riga or Danzig, Green from Zanzibar, and white from Cape Town, all investment books for 2 mil). You'll also probably want to pick up the Expert's Craftsman's Training Book from Jaffa for 300k. and the Craftsman's Training book from Candia for 400k later on, but these aren't absolutely necessary.
Rank 1 is a little difficult to get past, as your options are highly limited. Las Palmas and Azores have logs for sale, which can be turned into deck brushes, so running between them is one way of doing it. Once you get to Rank 2, you can begin turning wheat into beer. This will net you a little money and wheat is found in many places in the non-Mediterranean world. You can also use the seasonings booklet to convert olives into olive oil at this time, something that makes a decent amount of money. For Rank 3, if you have the Historical Crafts guide, you can start converting lumber into wood statues. This will make you quite a bit of money. If you don't have it, you can continue to convert wheat (but now into vodka), almonds into almond oil, and lumber into lifesavers. Rank 4 is the same as before, but keep in mind that you can now convert apples into apple vinegar (makes Calais a nice little stopoff whenever you're in the area). Rank 5, you can now start making bronze statues, whiskey out of wheat, and white vinegar out of barley. Ranks 6 and 7 are more of the same, but Rank 8 marks the point where Brewery Secrets 2 will take over. Bordeaux is the Sherry capital, the ingredients for sherry are plentiful there. Never sell the sherry at Bordeaux, head up to at least Plymouth with it, it will net you a bit of experience and trade fame with every load. Once you get to R9, you can incorporate stops at Calais to make Fruit Brandy out of apples into your route, and voila, you're R10.
For R10 and R11, you can make stone statues from the art book. Oslo's good for this, as both stone and lumber are sold there. Keep in mind that the Sherry recipe's still somewhat effective at this rank. At R12 you can make marble statues as well, buy marble in Athens/Salonika, and lumber in either the Black Sea region or at Beirut (the lumber in Beirut requires some investing to see). Also at R12, you can start using the colored gem books. The gem books have three tiers, and it's recommendable that you use the highest tier you can use. The R14 tier doesn't have any failures, but the R10 has them frequently, and the R12 every once and a while. Ceylon's outskirts has every color of gem available for collection, or if you prefer places like the landing point north of Riga have blue and yellow ore, in addition to plentiful grass to turn into vegetable oil and logs to turn into lumber, then combine the two to make fine furniture via the Expert Craftsman's book. The final stretch of handicrafts can be a bit of a pain to accomplish, but quite a profitable one.