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One of my biggest fascinations concerns Nature's design. My work with crystallizations made me aware of the similarities between patterns in the very small and the very big, and everything in between. I went looking for photographers who captured those patterns with a marvellous eye for detail: pictures that often put one on the wrong foot, because the scale of the subjects is far from obvious. Looking through my microscope it's the same thing. I often encounter visions of my garden or even whole mountain ranges seen from the air, like the pictures below. Would you guess that the 'weed' below is not weed but tiny crystals, occupying a surface area of about 1 square mm?? 
Nature is repeating itself on different scales. The French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot coined the word 'Fractals', which is far more than merely computer art: it's a mathematical way to describe Nature itself. This fractality is visible wherever we look. It's visible in the wonderful pictures of photographers like Andreas Feiniger, William Neill, Eliot Porter, David Muench, Jack Dykinga and many others. It's visible in my small-world pictures too. the wonderful patterns made by sound vibrations. Two centuries ago there was a man in Germany who got himself some metal plates, mounted them on wooden pedestals and sprinkled some sand on them. With a violin bow he urged the plates into vibration, and lo and behold : wonderful patterns emerged in the sand. This man was Ernst Chladni ( 1756-1827), and he is rightfully named 'Father of Acoustics'. Consequently his plates are still called 'Chladni-plates'. Naturally nowadays there is a mechanical way to bring about the vibrations, but the old way still works too. Although I have no knowledge of acoustics, I decided to try it out. I got a function generator from a friendly person, connected that to my amplifier and bought an oscillating device. Then I ordered some plates in different shapes, small ones for the mechanical stuff, and bigger ones for the handy work. My son lent me his spare violin bow, and I bought some short metal table legs , mounted them on a piece of wood, and attached the plates on top of them. I was ready to start experimenting. There's nothing new about it. Science teachers do it all the time in their classrooms. Nevertheless, for me it was exciting to see the sand arranging itself, feeling a bit like mr. Chladni must have felt when he, probably by accident, discovered this intriguing phenomenon. 
Many years he experimented in a very scientific way with sound, and the influence it has on matter. To that end he used the plates of his predecessor, but instead of just sand he used other substances also, like powders, fluids and gels. He called his wave-phenomena 'Cymatics'. Luckily his two books are still in print in one volume, and some video's made of his experiments give an excellent idea of the beauty of his dancing powders, obeying the laws of acoustics while they arrange themselves in intricate patterns. Anyhow, I'm planning to try some of the experiments of Hans Jenny, and also I'm very interested in how vibration might influence crystal growing. That will not be easy, because my micro-crystals are very sensitive to all kinds of influences, and they almost never grow the same way twice. But it's worth a try. If there is anyone out there who has experience in the matter, please contact me ! 
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