This is of big help, thank you.From my experience chalcedony tend to be readily available, they may not have multiple pieces in stock but you can always let your SA know that you'd love to have at leas 2-3 pieces to choose from so he/she can book you an appointment when that option become available.
As for what to look out for, it really comes down to your preference. Do you want your chalcedony to look more blue or lavender? The chalcedony itself it's a very pale blue shade, when it's more translucent, it'll appear more lavender on your skin because our skin (no matter warm or cool tone) has a tint of redness to it, so blue + red = purple. If you want it to be more blue, then go for one that's more opaque.
Then you look at the striations, do you prefer them to look more uniformed or different? Chalcedony reminds me of little clouds and funny thing is, while I typically go for things that are uniformed and symmetrical, but I opted for a 5 motif where each stone has some unique patterns/striations to make it more interesting and fun to look at.
In terms on length, I have 8 links removed for mine, making it around 15 cm to fit my 13 cm wrist. Because the motifs have the tendency to flip, it'll twist the chain and make the bracelet feel tighter at times. 8 links will be way too tight & restricting on you even when the motifs don't flip. By removing 6 links it'll be around 16 cm, giving you 2 cm of room. The only drawback with 6 links removed is the uneven links between each motif won't be symmetrical, it'll be 4-3-3-4, but when you're wearing it it's not that noticeable. 4 links would give you even number of links but quite loose on your wrist, at around 17 cm and not ideal for stacking. But it's totally up to you, the boutique should have the try-on kit available so you can see which length works best for you (6 links vs 4 links).
For reference, here's a post of someone showing the bracelet at 6 links & 4 links removed.
Length of VA bracelet with links removed
I find it crazy that NY won't do this. I think it looks far worse to have an uneven number of links between motifs! So happy for you that you got yours lengthened as you wished! I cannot understand either why they don't do this (how can this vary so much between service centers?). Hope that it...forum.purseblog.com
From internet pics, I’ll definitely choose translucency over color. As for striations, I don’t know until i see some and compare!