"Curler Units" cuboctahedron

This origami is a modular model by Herman Van Goubergen. It is very original, both in its look and in its design, because the four flaps of each unit have to be curled up into a spiral. This creates tension in the model, as if it were a spring, and you will see that you have to pull on it a little to join the last units. It can be a decorative piece to put on a desk or, why not, a Christmas decoration to hang up. You need 12 small squares to make it (here I used 7.5 cm squares), preferably in paper that holds its shape well (for once, printer paper is better than origami paper!). The underlying geometric shape is a cuboctahedron, a solid made of 6 square faces and 8 triangular faces. At the end, to check that everything is assembled correctly, make sure that each square is surrounded by 4 triangles and that each triangle is surrounded by 3 squares. One last tip: if you are left-handed, you can curl all the flaps the other way, it will be easier!

And for those with even more patience, with 30 units you can also fold the icosidodecahedron, where each triangle is surrounded by 3 pentagons and each pentagon by 5 triangles.