FASHION : Crafts, From Rustic to Recycled, Add New Character to Country : It’s easy to get carried away with such homey motifs as cows, sunflowers and fish. The trick is knowing when to stop.

On the newsstand at Ventura’s Livery News & Books, you will count some eight magazines with the word “country” in their titles.

These journals, most launched in the last five years, deal with the country look , not the country sound. They show rooms filled with rugged pine or oak, quaint chests and hutches, lace curtains and cast iron stoves. In the ‘90s, a lot of Americans want their homes, well, homey .

But some folks can’t manage a complete decorating overhaul. For them, there are collections .

Collections are things you stick in corners, on walls and shelves to give flavor to a room. In this case, country flavor. And, where it once took pricey antiques to set a rustic mood, now there is folk art.

American crafts are back from near-extinction, bigger than they’ve been in decades, say those who deal in the wares. Objects handmade in the U.S.A. are in demand, from art to kitsch.

“Even young people buy it; they are tired of plastic stuff,” said Nancy Wynands, an artist who owns Winkel Van Sinkel, a Ventura folk gallery in a gingerbread Victorian house.

Her shop is crowded with nostalgic goods, from wire pillow fluffers to distressed tick-tack-toe boards. The more primitive an object, the faster it sells, she said.

“Especially, they like things you make out of scraps,” she said, “anything with the recycled look,” such as paintings on old roof tiles and birdhouses crafted from dismantled barns.

The birdhouses are not so much for actual birds. Most buyers put them indoors, along with weathered-looking garden tools and pots of painted sunflowers.

That’s become one of the current country looks--garden. Another, still alive from its rebirth during the Gulf War, is Americana, with whole rooms done in red, white and blue. A newer look is mountain lodge. This theme is well represented at Rose Cottage in Thousand Oaks, a Janss Mall store the size of a museum where you could get lost for half a day.

In the mountain-lodge room there are carved fish, loons and other water birds. Big ones, not trinkets.

“It’s for those who always wanted a cabin,” said owner Linda Kovach. “It has a real warm appeal.”

The fish are hung on walls, the geese and loons--how could you resist a loon in the living room?--are placed about like decoys, and once you have one, a flock could gather, just like outdoors.

That’s the trick in collections. You have to know when to stop.

“Magazines flooded birdhouses, so people think they have to go out and get all these birdhouses,” said Kovach. “A few birdhouses, a few sunflowers are wonderful. But how many birdhouses can you have?”

Most collectors, she finds, make sophisticated choices. She is selective about craft items. “I don’t buy anything that looks cutesy,” she said.

Wynands has seen collections take over a house, not a pretty sight.

“They have a chicken kitchen, or a watermelon kitchen,” she said of determined collectors. “If it doesn’t have a watermelon, it’s not right.”

The phrase to have at the ready for such a hostess is, “You must love this kitchen!” she said.

Kitchens are a favorite place to convert to a country look, made easy by tin-punch decorative ware, newly crafted washboards, stoneware crocks, wire baskets and tea cozies.

We noted that many of the motifs double up: There are sunflower-shaped birdhouses, fish welcome signs and cow cookie cutters.

The Holstein cow has to be one of the classic American symbols. Other folk-art animals abound, but the black-and-white bovine appears to be head and withers above all comers. Had we not taken careful control, we might have ended up creating a cow kitchen ourselves.

In country circles, cows go beyond the standard Holstein cookie jars, pitchers and aprons. We found rocking-cows, cow bookends, cow birdhouses, an entire set of cow stoneware and a lamp with cowhide shade.

We won’t even tell you the rest; it will leave you something to discover when you come into your own country cycle.

Kovach’s theory is that there is always a universal style evolution operating. People may start with anything from Deco to Danish, but after experiencing the best art forms, they will come to cherish country.

Then, “you fall in love with it; you’re hooked,” she said. “Once you’re into country, you don’t go anywhere else.”