Flowers, Birds, and Unicorns

``I chose the medieval world for my inspiration because'' of its ``vivid extremes of terror and joy; the most delicate, detailed, and fanciful craftsmanship alongside crude and grotesque gargoyles, courtly love and peasants `swynking and swyving' the fields.'' Bahouth, a designer and a weaver, offers designs for a monkey cushion deriving from a 15th-century tapestry; for a lion leaping ``across a background of teardrops''; for astrology-inspired embroidery; and even for a pillow inspired by an illuminated manuscript. The dignity and mystery of medieval imagery translate well into modern times and materials. Along with details of how to render the translations come explanations of sources and iconography: the secret garden, for instance, represented to medieval poets and artists erotic and spiritual longings, while bees ``stood for the poorer classes.'' This is as much a book for reading as for doing, and evokes the sense of a world where the niceties of craftsmanship mingled with the largeness of mythology. BOMC dividend selection . (Dec.)