The Stout Folk are well known for their artisanship and the worth of their handiwork, and you have been trained in that ancient tradition. For years you labored under a dwarf master of the craft, enduring long hours, and dismissive, sour-tempered treatment in order to gain the fine skills you possess today. You are most likely a dwarf, but not necessarily -- particularly in the cities bordering the halfling lands, where dwarf clans learned long ago that only proud fools who are more concerned for their egos than their craft turn away promising apprentices, even those of other races.
If you aren't a dwarf, however, you have taken a solemn oath never to take on an apprentice in the craft: it is not for non-dwarves to pass on the skills of the dark's favored children. You would have no difficulty, however, finding a dwarf master who was willing to receive potential apprentices who came with your recommendation.
Skill Proficiencies: History, Insight
Tool Proficiencies: One type of artisan's tools
Languages: Dwarvish or one other of your choice if you already speak Dwarvish
Equipment: A set of artisan's tools with which you are proficient, a maker's mark chisel used to mark your handiwork with the symbol of the clan of crafters you learned your skill from, a set of traveler's clothes, and a pouch containing 5 gp and a gem worth 10 gp
As well respected as clan crafters are among outsiders, no one esteems them quite so highly as dwarves do. You always have free room and board in any place in the dwarven kingdoms, and the individuals in such a settlement might vie among themselves to determine who can offer you (and possibly your compatriots) the finest accommodations and assistance.
Use the tables for the guild artisan background in the Player's Handbook as the basis for your traits and motivations, modifying the entries when appropriate to suit your identity as a clan crafter. (For instance, consider the words "guild" and "clan" to be interchangeable.) Your bond is almost certainly related to the master or the clan that taught you, or else to the work that you produce. Your ideal might have to do with maintaining the high quality of your work or preserving the dwarven traditions of craftsmanship.