When I was a kid I learnt origami, and even had an exhibition at my (tiny) local library. Back in those days it was hard to find any decent books about origami, and the internet was only a twinkle in the US military-industrial complex’s eye (and a few universitys’). If you were lucky you could find an old copy of Robert Harbin’s brilliant books (US link
Today things have changed. There are loads of origami books, reprints of Robert Harbin’s work, and models that certainly didn’t turn up in the books that I was reading when I was a kid. Today there are whole books dedicated to naughty origami (US link
On a more publically acceptable note, there have also been some developments in the frivolous side of origami too, again working with the art as a way of entertaining other people. US link
I don’t know if this might interest you but I have an original copy of one of Harbin’s books with a whole bunch of his designs and half of the book devoted to other origami artists back in his time. Some of the designs are amazingly complex and if you’d like to see some I’m sure I can manage to get them sent to you somehow. This book taught me everything I know about the art and its a really beautiful book, despite only being in black and white.
I have no idea of where my original copy of one of his books has gone. I learnt from ‘More Origami’. It had a blue cover with, I think, a model of a horse on the front. Is it that one?
I believe its called “secrets of origami” and was written after “Origami” and “More Origami”, at least I think I remember the introduction saying so. It has some very technical designs in it, including a fully three dimentional whale model made with a complex 32*32 square folding system that I didn’t even want to begin to try freehand…