Hey Merlin,
Played and played with this, not sure I ended up where I had envisioned but it was fun trying. Neat image.
I inverted this, did all kinds of things to it, that in the end added a little detail and desaturated it. I then added the background layer and tried to give the image a little plasticity. Really not sure if it is any closer.
Original image by merlin1477024.
Ozzie