Wow Valeria! Looks beautiful!!! Loved your idea of placing both images toghether and very nicely done as well.
Actually, it is a scanned image of a photo taken by the SSWF Gem Lab in Basel, under a electron microscope. It appears on the "Cultured Pearls from the Gulf of California" article that was published in Gems & Gemmology (
http://www.gia.edu/gemsandgemology/1...cle_detail.cfm) in the year 2004.
I don't know exactly what pearl was used to take that photo since we gave Lore Kieffert (the author) several cultured pearls (of inferior quality I may have to add...we could not part with the expensive ones
) and these were used for all sorts of tests.
BTW, I am writting a book (since 2004) but about the "Nature of the Beast" (well, I am a biologist...I care more about the living world than the marketing and glam aspects of the Pearl). I already have 12 chapters written but need to review this information with lots of people and when ready comes the final issue: the money to print it. Also, my twins do not allow me much respite to work on my book (but then again: I do sleep soundly at night thanks to them...the perfect solution for Insomnia: have twins!).