Cuboctahedron Curler Units

Designed by Herman van Goubergen

Reference:  Designer: Herman van Goubergen: http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/curler.php

                  Presenter: barbabellaatje     : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm2JEhBvxCg 

No of units: (just) 12 units.

Paper size used : 4" x 4"  

Difficulty: easy to make units and simple assembly.

Paper used: normal color printer paper

Time: 2-3 hours

Cuboctahedron is a polyhedron with eight triangular faces and six square faces. 

Assembling technique: Follow : In a Cuboctahedron triangles are surrounded by 3 squares and all squares are surrounded by 4 triangles. 4 curls meeting forms a square, 3 curls meeting forms a triangle.

Single Curl and finished Cuboctahedron

I felt the units are very easy to make and assembly is simple. This is the first curler model I did. It took me a while to get the curls properly, after curling about 2 units, I got the hang of it. This model is based on water bomb base. Most of the curler models requires paper to be curled and these curls holds each other. There's no flap or pocket. No need of glue. 

While assembling this I stumbled twice. Both the times the units came apart at the last step. To reassemble it was confusing, I had to dismantle again and start from the beginning. 

I realized after assembling I had tightly curled the units so they don't break, this was the problem, I could not stretch the paper units because it was tightly assembled and when I forced to bend everything broke.

Third time I tucked in the papers but loose enough so I could stretch the units into a ball while joining the last step. Once assembled the units sit tight. (I have even dropped this model many times while moving here and there, but it didn't break.)

A beautiful, easy and simple curler unit to start with. I did not use any tool to curl, no glue and no paperclip while assembling, just my thumb and index finger :)

Started and finished on 13 May 2013.