Idar is the epitome of a small store, with its showroom coming in at a tidy 250 square feet. And it isn’t precisely on the cutting edge: The shop’s exterior resembles an old German house, and every piece of jewelry inside is handcrafted without the aid of CAD or similar tools.

So why all the buzz? It’s because the store has attracted a legion of loyal customers from all over the world and brings in millions of dollars each year.

Owner and goldsmith-in-residence Idar Bergseth, now 67, dreamed of being a jeweler since his childhood, says his daughter and store manager, Lara Bergseth.

“It’s something that he wanted to do ever since he was about 6. He’s Norwegian. His parents came here when he was a little boy, and they lived in Vancouver. He used to get his mother to hold him up to look into the window of a local chain jewelry store, Birks,” she says. “He loved jewelry.”

At 17, Bergseth apprenticed himself to a well-known Vancouver goldsmith, who trained the younger man in the European tradition of making jewelry by hand. That led to work in Beverly Hills with high-end brand-name jewelers, and paved the way for him to win industry accolades like the De Beers Diamonds Today Award and a first place in the Saul Bell Design Awards.

But Victoria, a city of about 350,000, eventually drew him back. The city gets compared to England, Lara says, and maybe it’s “a little sleepy.” But because it’s a capital with a university, museum, and excellent weather — rarely does it snow in the winter — it gets a lot of tourists. “There are lots of people here with money, which is nice,” she says.

Today, visitors to the store must step past three brass bees set into the sidewalk out front. The bee logo, which Lara designed, reflects her father’s longtime hobby — he’s an apiarist, or beekeeper. When the city tore up the sidewalk for construction next door, Bergseth asked the workers if they could drop the bees into the wet pavement. The workers agreed, and refused payment. “They said, ‘Oh, just give us some beer!’” Lara says, laughing. “Canadians, right?”

Inside, guests find themselves in a cleanly laid-out showroom, fittingly Scandinavian in its modern minimalism. Blond wood cases present jewelry hung on black displays, for a striking contrast, and a curved line of electric candle fixtures light the space. There are just two counters.

Back in the shop — which is four times larger than the sales floor — Bergseth and three other goldsmiths practice their craft.

“It has kind of a Northern European flair” is how Lara describes the look of Idar’s work. “There’s this Norwegian art form called rosemaling, and it’s very swirly and swooshy, kind of floral. And a lot of our jewelry has that look to it.”

Idar does most of its business in engagement rings and wedding bands, Lara says, frequently customized. “Mostly people come in and see something in the case, but then we’ll modify it a bit.” She’s delighted that in recent years, customers’ tastes have moved away from strictly conservative looks. “We’re doing a lot of big, bold pieces lately, too, which is really fun, because for so many years, it was really understated. It was all white metal and smaller things. Now it’s going into pieces like rings with 10 colored stones. Nice change.”

TRY THIS

To get her dad to eat better, Lara started making him lunch each day, and that turned into a healthy lunch program for the whole staff. Everyone kicks in $20 a week to buy groceries, and then they cook and eat together every afternoon. (The shop doesn’t close, but lunch hour is quiet in Victoria.) It’s not mandatory to participate, she says. “But everybody wants to! We take an hour off and sit and talk about work things, or not.”

SHOP TALK

“Mother of pearl!” A nicer version of “mother of God!”

“No one can help you now.” Employees say this to one another when they’ve just encountered someone difficult to deal with.