Rafflesia Arnoldii

The rafflesia arnoldii, more commonly known as a corpse flower due to its unique aroma, caught my eye as an origami subject because of the challenge it posed in creating the central dome with a hole in the middle. This proved to be even trickier than I had anticipated, and I discarded about 5 or 6 designs because they either did not work at all or made the dome too cone-shaped. I finally decided to use a method similar to my Jellyfish - I shaped the dome around a balloon, but this time the balloon was only about two thirds of the way inside the central flap. I inverted the remaining third, creating the hole in the middle.

Design date: March, 2011

Paper used: A single un-cut square of tissue paper treated with methyl cellulose.