ascote wrote:I understand its only a small chance or through recycling that I can gild an item a second time,
It's actually based on the two items: the base item and the gild. The number ranges and icons given show you the skill or attribute used, and the probability range. The higher the numbers, the better, and try to match up the icons if you can. (Failure to match icons will result in the minimal chance to get an additional slot.)
Depending on what you plan on doing in the game, there is also the Gilding Song obtained from the Deep Artifice unlock. For the expense of experience points, you can sing to an artifact to unlock another slot, repeatable as often as you care to afford it. It starts getting expensive fast after a few slots.
Opinions expressed in this statement are the authors alone and in no way reflect on the game development values of the actual developers.