ARTISTRY GETS EVEN CRAFTIER : This Year, Laguna’s Big Three Have Added Elements to Draw Even More Visitors

Hands-on workshops, decor with an international flair and more entertainment offerings are among the new twists planned for this summer’s troika of annual art and craft festivals in Laguna Beach.

The three fairs, held within walking distance of one another along Laguna Canyon Road, will feature handmade crafts and artworks by about 500 craftspeople and artists, most from Orange County.

Visitors to the Sawdust Festival, which opens today, will be able to throw their own ceramic pots and make etchings or paintings thanks to expanded hands-on workshops. Paintings and etchings can be taken home right away; ceramics, which must be glazed and fired, may be retrieved two weeks after creation.

Art-A-Fair, beginning Friday, takes on an international theme. Flags from countries around the world will wave high above the fairgrounds; walkways between artisans’ colorful booths will be named after ports of call (“Bombay Road,” “London Lane,” “Alaska Circle”) and gardens planted with flora representing different countries will pretty things up even more.

All three festivals will offer live entertainment, from jugglers to military bands, but the Festival of the Arts, starting July 8, will have more to amuse this year than previously. Various groups and individuals will perform on weekends and Thursday nights, and Tivoli Terrace, a restaurant on the grounds, will present jazz week nights from 5 to 8:30 p.m.

The Pageant of the Masters, a stage show of “living pictures” in which volunteer models are posed and made up to look like famous artworks, will feature magic illusions for the first time. The show, which will open with re-creations of classic magic show posters from the early part of the century, will be performed nightly from July 8 through Aug. 29 next to the Festival of the Arts at the Irvine Bowl Amphitheater.