Step into Idar Bergseth’s jewelry workshop and you will get an instant visual picture of his lifelong passion for stones and nature.
Rocks of different shapes and colours, fossils, a walrus skull, heavy meteorites and much more fill his shelves. “I have boxes and boxes and boxes of rocks,” Bergseth says with a smile. He collected some of the keepsakes in his Idar store at 946 Fort St. as a child.
Stones continue to enchant the 68-year-old Bergseth, who is receiving the 2013 Carter Wosk Creative Achievement Award for Applied Art and Design, presented by the B.C. Achievement Foundation, in Vancouver next month.
The juried award was a surprise. Daughter Lara Bergseth submitted samples of Idar’s work without telling him. He had earlier received another prestigious award, being named one of America’s Coolest Small Jewelry Stores by INSTORE, a publication for American jewelry store owners. It was the first time a Canadian store was recognized.
As far back as he can remember, Bergseth loved stones. His mother used to take him from their north Burnaby home to downtown Vancouver where he looked in jewelry store windows to see the sparkling gems.
That early passion has not waned. “It is strange, but sometimes I think I enjoy it more because there is so much to learn and not enough time,” said Bergseth.
He picks up a rust-coloured chunk of rock from an opal mine he visited in Central Mexico. “It was just a privilege to go there and watch them dig out these rocks by hand.”
A chunk of fossilized coral he collected at age 10 while on a trip to Watrous, Sask., is among treasures he found, traded, bought or received as gifts. There’s petrified wood from Ashcroft, a dinosaur bone from Drumheller, Alta., a meteorite from China and a clump of purple amethyst crystals from a late customer.
Bergseth’s parents were from Norway and his father worked in B.C. as a commercial fishermen, going to the Bering Sea for halibut. They supported their only child’s interest, ensuring, for example, that he had lessons in lapidary work. “It was a nice life,” he said. “They were great parents.”
At age 14, he joined a rockhound group in Vancouver. As an adult, he apprenticed as a bench jeweller in Vancouver and then worked with goldsmith Karl Stittgen at his store, where Bergseth learned from German craftsmen who were “very, very good.”
Bergseth and wife Nikki opened their first store in a tiny space on Broad Street in 1972. They decided to open a store in Beverly Hills, living there for four years and keeping a studio open on Fort Street. The family loved California, but Bergseth missed B.C. and its climate. He bought the building where the business is based 30 years ago.
Although Bergseth is investing in high-tech devices, the art of working with gold has changed little in hundreds of years. Some tools being used are similar to those of the 1500s. It is time-consuming, precise hand work.
The Idar store, featuring its bee trademark, showcases fine jewelry and gemstones. Amid the dazzling display is a pair of earrings made with seafoam jasper, a cream-and-teal patterned stone. The jasper is not valuable in itself, but Bergseth wrapped the stones with 18-karat gold and added clasps to create something that fits in with the other offerings.
Bergseth does not have a favourite stone, saying it is whatever he is working with at the moment. Daughter Lara Bergseth, who also designs jewelry with her father, agrees, saying every stone is unique. This passion for jewelry is showing up in the next generation. Lara’s son, Leif, who is just three, loves visiting his grandfather’s workshop.
Jewelry carries memories, Bergseth said. A piece can be an amulet, have a spiritual meaning or a gift. It is something precious to its owner.
As much as Idar is known for its designs and quality of work, the Bergseths treasure the relationships built up with customers. “What gets me really excited is if you can do something for somebody who really appreciates it,” he said.
Bergseth was a leader in selling Canadian diamonds. When they were first coming to market, a young man came into Idar’s store. He wanted a Canadian diamond for an engagement ring, but couldn’t afford the larger stones being cut at that time. Bergseth found a cutter who agreed to provide a small stone. The cutter delivered the stone when the young man was in the store, just a few days before Valentine’s Day. “That made me feel good.”
