Some of these points have already come up, but I want to get them bundled together.
Powers to take (assume 8 refresh to play with, as stated in OP):
Lore 5
-2 Ritual: Crafting (includes 2 Focus Items slots)
Since this is Ritual, not Thaumaturgy, you can't take specializations, and you don't get a free specialization point to start with. In my opinion, the -1 upgrade to Thaumaturgy is generally worth the refresh, but not necessary, especially for this character.
-X Refinements
You are going to want a lot of these, for two reasons that I'll get to in a moment.
-1 Potent Potions: +2 Crafting Strength when creating potions.
This is a perfectly valid supernatural stunt, in my opinion, but it's also slightly underpowered, so I wouldn't take it. An additional -1 Refinement is in all ways better, see below.
Ok, Refinements--this is where most of the work goes, in terms of putting things together right. First, limitations--since you don't have Thaumaturgy or Evocation, Refinement can only be purchased to grant Focus Item slots (which can be traded in--1 Focus Item slot is 2 enchanted item slots). You can't use Refinement to purchase specializations. For your character, this is a fairly meaningless limitation. You WANT Focus Items anyway; they are somewhat less limiting for a Crafter than for nearly any other type of practitioner.
-2 Refinement + 1 slot from Ritual: +5 Crafting: Strength Focus Item, possibly a staff, could be something else large.
-1 Refinement + other slot from Ritual: +3 Crafting: Frequency Focus Item, possibly a ritual carving knife, or whatever.
-3 Refinement: 12 enchanted item slots.
You can drop one of the item slot Refinements to boost your Frequency from 3 to 5, but in my opinion, 3 ought to be enough. The trade-off would be only 8 enchanted item slots.
What does that give you? 12 enchanted item slots, each of which can hold a 10 Power effect with 4 uses per session. You can allocate 2 of those to defensive items, like a Block 10 effect, 4/session, and a Armor 5 effect, 4/session. Possibly another slot or two to offensive items, and the remainder to potions. You're capped on Power, so there's no need to spend slots on Power, and each slot already comes with 4/session, so spending slots to boost frequency is a waste--if 4/session isn't enough, spend a slot to get a second copy of the same item.
The reason Focus Items are even better for Crafters than normal is they don't have to be carried around with you; they can be left safe in your lab where you actually DO the Crafting.