This fancy fellow is a geometric figure known as a cuboctahedron. It is an example of a subset of origami known as unit origami, in which the folder creates many identical units (each from a single sheet of paper) and assembles them into a whole. Unit origami is ideally suited for realizing polyhedra (three-dimensional mathematical figures).
This cuboctahedron is constructed of 24 individual units (3 each of 8 different colors), each folded from a 6" square of origami paper. Folding patterns for each unit may be fond in the excellent book Unit Origami by Tomoko Fusè, under the name "Open Frame I — Bow-Tie Motif". Assembling units into various polyhedra is left as an exercise for the reader.
Thanks to the always-amazing Cafe Zing! for providing space for folding and photography.
