The Chrysanthemum is a centerpiece designed by South African designer Michaella Janse van Vuuren. It's a combination of bowl/candle holder made with rapid prototyping (and manufacturing) using laser, so it's a perfect combination of art and engineering:
The centrepiece reflects my passion for the textures, shapes and patterns found in nature. I especially like to interpret those objects that have a repetitive mathematically founded pattern. Some objects are immediately recognisable, such as the Chrysanthemum, others are more abstract. Direct 3-dimensional manufacturing methods, such as selective laser sintering (SLS) used to create the Chrysanthemum allows me to design intricate textures and objects. These textures and objects would have been impossible to execute by hand, yet the centrepiece still retains the beauty and tactile feeling of a natural object.
The Chrysanthemum is directly manufactured with the EOS P380 using the PA2200 polyamide material.
Link - via Why Me Design
The models are made with a free application called TopMod & probably rendered in Maxwell. Rapid prototyping of Topmod sculptures is now becoming cheaper. Google 'Shapeways' site.