Artisan travelling north is crossing motorway (9)

I believe the answer is:

ironsmith

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'artisan' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'travelling north is crossing motorway' is the wordplay.
'travelling' indicates anagramming the letters.
'crossing' means one lot of letters goes inside another (to cross can mean to go over or around).
'motorway' becomes 'MI' (resembles M1, English motorway).
'north'+'is'='northis'
'northis' with letters rearranged gives 'ironsth'.
'ironsth' placed around 'mi' is 'IRONSMITH'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ironsmith that I've seen before include "Master forger" , "Metalworker" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.