I get the impression that there are so many artists that it won't meaningfully limit the selection either way. Oh, this is exciting!

"Do you want to go visit stores now, or schedule a time later?"

Now! ...I might have trouble following you on a train.

"It might be hard to fit in a lot of stores, too, but I can think of some places if you can get to my city."

I think I could follow train tracks if I know the path ahead of time.

"Let me show you the train route on my map app." Here's the path the train takes to this interchange over here, and then to Shapto.

It's still hard to see anything on screens that small but she gets the idea. And if she gets terribly lost she will land in a park somewhere and ask for directions to Shapto.

And once in Shapto there's this bridge she can land on, she isn't bigger than a couple loaded trucks.

If you threw a truck so it landed on the bridge, it might be messy. Landing gently is a skill you have to master when you get big though. I will meet you there.

"If you're not sure about it you can land on the riverbank and climb over the wall."

It will be okay one way or another. Time to go?

"Mm-hm, see you there!"

She flies low, a bit faster than road traffic but much slower than intercity high-speed trains. She chooses the correct path at the rail junction, the interchange wasn't that complicated. Her target is a bridge, it'll be on a river...

Here's her shopper waving at her!

Things get rather gusty, but she lands easily, back talons and tail touching down first, light as a fridge. 

Hello again. It's rather loud around here.

"The river's pretty noisy, everybody's got to talk over it," he says, realizing partway through this sentence that speaking aloud is for his own benefit and not that of his telepathic client so he doesn't have to speak up. "There's an open air arts and crafts market which isn't crowded this time of day, you'll be able to cruise through without inconveniencing too many people weaving around the aisles and see what you like."

Interesting! A good recommendation.

The open air market is on the river, not far from the bridge. It has jewelry and tapestries and pottery and glass art and wooden furniture and mechanical clocks and leatherwork and sculpture and clothes and decorative lamps and paintings and china knicknacks.

It's all very foreign and even un-crowded, kind of makes her tense. Going into a building would be worse. But the interesting things on offer here...! She practically radiates excited greed.

Leatherwork is strangely appealing... Does leather rot? Probably eventually. Hmm... Material things are temporary anyway. She buys a nice leather bag to hold some of the many marbles with swirling patterns and brooches and pendants and china knicknacks and glass art pieces. The one particularly appealing mechanical clock with clear sides to show all the inner bits probably won't fit in a bag, though.

...I have decided that I want to commission a leather hat, she informs the helpful purple. It was definitely the right choice to hire him. ...Possibly several hats, or something vaguely shawl-like? My crest has never been the prettiest. It covers half my neck and it's ORANGE. Terrible. Clothes aren't in fashion at home but it will go well with all the other foreign things I am buying. None of what's on offer is sized for me, obviously. And I don't have a feel for when my money will run out - about how much of it have I eaten with all the little treasures I've picked so far?

"About a fifth of it. I can get you a leather hat-cape-thing made bespoke, that'll run you about a tenth of the original sum at a guess."

I think I want it. Whatever they can do to make it tough and not rot should be done too. I suppose it will be a while as whoever you choose actually makes it...? I want design input on something so significant. Maybe I should keep some of it for lessons in all these new kinds of craft... No, I've already specialized. Could you figure out about how much weight of raw gold would have paid for what I've chosen so far, if I sold it here? I have a lot, I make freezers and saunas and hot tubs and starship radiators, and many kin want those. So maybe I will sell unworked gold to get yet more of these delightful crafts.

The purple can look up the commodity price of gold.

I think I will arrange that, some other time.

She finishes her shopping spree through the outdoor market after three hours and assumes her helper can get everything sent to the conference site, but carefully ties a few necklaces around her foreclaws. She's clearly pretty ridiculously happy about all this.

He can totally have everything boxed up and delivered. "I have more ideas for places to bring you along with, or I can just run with what I know now about your taste for the rest of the shopping."

I'm enjoying this, let's keep going!