Rather than working on the things I’ve been working on, I played Stellaris for a while. Then, as coherent thought started to flee the coming of the mad king sleep, I stayed researching things that weren’t on task.
Basically, after bouncing through a dozen or so websites, I found something I liked the idea of, just not the implementation.
So, a vase with a screw driven linear actuator. The arm of the actuator is a “flower stem”. As it raises out of the vase, the flower opens. Inside the opening flower petals are reflectors and LEDs. Now to draw this out. Prolly do it as an alarm clock.