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[Cespinarve]

Fith Fortress, three-four years in. My first artifact? A Diorite amulet, encrusted with bands with of Diorite. Next artifact? A Diorite gate, encrusted with Diorite. Just... Diorite. My latest artifact, a... diorite... mug. Encrusted with Diorite............. what the hell? These are not only useless (not unusual), but entirely valueless. My legendary stonecrafter makes more valuable things in a day! And what's worse, the last two moods have been possessions, so NOTHING gained. I am so pissed. What a waste.

[Lemunde]

Yeah, I get a lot of lame stuff like that too.  But every once in a while I get something really cool.  I just had a gem cutter craft a sapphire armor stand.

Edit: In your case it might have something to do with most of your stone being set to economic.  I figured moody dwarves pick whatever materials they feel like working with regardless of what your settings but it might be worth looking into.

[Stargrasper]

Well, you CAN manage what they use for artifact construction.  Forbid all the diorite from the stocks menu(and then unforbid all the buildings/furniture/etc that's made of diorite) and they'll find a different stone to use(or go insane looking for it).  There's also a propensity from dwarves to use the nearest thing.  Put the valuable stuff by the workshop and unforbid it when a mood strikes.  I think that if you [t] over the workshop to see the stuff they've already collected, you can forbid something there to make them pick a replacement for it.  Yet another way to bring up the value of artifacts.

There really isn't much you can do that I'm aware of to make them give you more useful artifacts.  Just set it up so that you can get useful legendary professions out of it.  I'm surprised just how many legendary engravers I've gotten out of moods.

Train everyone to dabbling(or higher if needed to make it the highest skill) in whatever you want them to be and you maximize the chance a useful dwarf will get a mood.  This has the unfortunate drawback that if you can't provide for them, you lose a good dwarf.

Alternately, you can cheat.  The utility Dwarf Companion lets you change those Possessions into Fey moods as well as changing the material the mood asks for.  Allegedly it can set and cancel moods at will, but I haven't had luck with those functions.

[Poojawa]

There really isn't much you can do that I'm aware of to make them give you more useful artifacts.  Just set it up so that you can get useful legendary professions out of it.  I'm surprised just how many legendary engravers I've gotten out of moods.

Train everyone to dabbling(or higher if needed to make it the highest skill) in whatever you want them to be and you maximize the chance a useful dwarf will get a mood.  This has the unfortunate drawback that if you can't provide for them, you lose a good dwarf.

Alternately, you can cheat.  The utility Dwarf Companion lets you change those Possessions into Fey moods as well as changing the material the mood asks for.  Allegedly it can set and cancel moods at will, but I haven't had luck with those functions.

You can 'cancel' melencholy and madness for failed artifacts as well. Berserk dwarves require you to set them to your own civilization again. You can get free soldiers from Caravans this way too.

Sadly, children don't move anymore when they're in the Fortress guard anymore when you set that flag

[dragon0421]

I try to control my dwarf moods by making all of my haulers a dabbler in what I'd prefer next. It's also a great way to build training weapons; two birds with one stone. Only when the dwarf has no experience in a useful trade (or if they're an experienced crafter), they make useless mugs and crafts.

[Ubiq]

Next artifact? A Diorite gate, encrusted with Diorite. Just... Diorite.

While the others aren't much use, any artifact that can be built in a room is never worthless regardless of how low its value is. Build it in your Dining Hall and make your dwarves happy no matter what befalls them or use it to kick a room up to Royal status.

[balath]

I agree.  I have all of my build-able artifacts in the middle of the highest traffic areas of my fortress.  Nearly every dwarf has a couple of happy thoughts from seeing them.

I can verify from testing that you can look at what a moody dwarf has gathered if you use [t] over the workshop.  Until the dwarf has gathered all of his materials, if you forbid something that he's already gathered, he'll go find a replacement.  Useful if you can't manage to get the timing right to look at what he wants.  However, once he's gathered everything and starts working, forbidding material will have no effect.  The dwarf will ignore you.

To see what a dwarf wants while he's running around gathering material, [q] over the workshop while he's in it dropping something off.  If you get the timing right, he'll tell you what he wants.  Another method is just to follow him and see what he picks up.

Once you know what he wants, just forbid everything on the stocks menu except what you want him to use.  Demanding stone?  Forbid everything except that raw ore you want him to use.  Demanding gems?  Forbid the low-value ones.  Moody dwarves do respect forbid orders (to the extent that they'll go insane before the grab a forbidden item), but remember to reclaim everything after he starts working.

[Quietust]

Edit: In your case it might have something to do with most of your stone being set to economic.  I figured moody dwarves pick whatever materials they feel like working with regardless of what your settings but it might be worth looking into.

For future reference, dwarves completely ignore all "economic stone" settings when in strange moods.

[Satarus]

You can just forbid the items while he is hauling them.  He'll drop it in the workshop and then go get another.

[MelloHero]

First artifact, brand-new fort, first immigrant wave, spring of year two. I was impressed when I saw the artifact's name (long), only to find it is a rhyolite ring, encrusted with rhyolite and banded in rhyolite. Couldn't even get beyond the idea of roundness and add some spikes on it, though arguably, that makes it the most wearable DF ring I've ever seen. Upside? Legendary engraver.

[bombcar]

You can just forbid the items while he is hauling them.  He'll drop it in the workshop and then go get another.

If he's not started work, you can actually forbid items in his workshop; as long as he hasn't grabbed the last item, he'll go get a replacement item for the one your forbid.

If you do it too long he'll go crazy?

CRAZY?

DON'T MIND IF I DO!!!!

[silhouette]

Fordblame the past peak

A felsite table

This is a felsite table. all crafts blah blah blah.
It is encrusted with bands of microline.
this object menaces with spikes of felsite

HE ONLY TOOK ONE GOD DAMN ROCK.
HE MAGICALLY PRODUCED THE MICROLINE

I dont even think its worth anything!

[Pandarsenic]

The most annoying thing I got was a series of mudstone querns, never worth more than 8000☼.

They couldn't even bump my King's quarters from Grand to Royal. -.-

[Doomshifter]

I was on a map with LOADS of chalk, so I was fairly lucky with the crappy stonecraft artifacts generally being worth 3 times more than any OTHER crappy stonecraft artifacts. Though I did end up with a table, chair, bed, cabinet, coffer and a weapon rack (might have been an armour stand) made out of chalk artifacts. I think my king liked them.

[MelloHero]

Update: The legendary engraver has the creative mind of a sea cucumber. Every single engraving has been of him making the artifact, the fort's foundation, the mayor's election, somebody settling there (usually himself), donkeys for their stubbornness, and one image, ONE, of an artifact weapon rack from my last fort. What a plank...