It would be easy to walk right by Glass Ripples, but walking by without checking it out would be a mistake. Look for a sidewalk signboard pointing to the store, set at the end of a small parking lot on Elm Street where the “environmentally conscious baby goods” Diaper Lab store did business until 2023. Sifan Wu was looking to open her first shop and, after making renovations, opened there in 2024.
When I had my store, I was asked at trade shows “What kind of things do you sell?” and I always struggled to come up with a phrase I felt was descriptive. I asked Wu a similar question: “How would you describe your store?” She settled on “Colorful, well-done home goods.”
“Colorful vibes,” she added. I can’t think of a better way to describe this charming shop.
Having been in retail for 36 years, I often recognize a lot of the products I see in other stores, commercial and artisanal, but Wu has sourced a fair amount of merchandise I’d never seen. It was indeed very colorful, the pieces standing out against the simple white walls and displays. She works with artists and craftspeople local and international. While I was there, a woman walked in and asked how to go about selling her work there; she was encouraged to show Wu her portfolio.
What, more specifically, are these colorful, well-done home goods? Ceramic plates that say “Butter and Bread” or “Scrambled Eggs.” Striped woven placemats. Bright enamel switch plate covers. A beautiful light blue tea set painted with puffy white clouds. Dish towels, among them some decorated with phrases such as “A Good Squeeze,” showing two embracing lemons, and “The Cocktail Goddess,” a woman holding a martini rising from a scallop shell. The work ranges from simple and sophisticated – a display of geometric black and white cups stood out in particular – to lumpy and endearing, a mug proclaiming “breakfast time” with a childlike drawing of an egg and a flower. A bright ceramic cookie jar in the shape of a cute bug, silly and fun.
Wu stocks some unusual candles – some displayed in a rather unexpected way: in a vintage blue refrigerator with an “open me” sign on the front. Inside you’ll find a rotating selection of wax cheese, pickles, broccoli, corn on the cob, fried chicken(!) butter pats and bananas. Not in the fridge but also great are fish taper candles, some very colorful “Wiggle” tapers and a lovely white wax cake sporting four red candles in the shape of cherries.
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Wares at Glass Ripple include a tea set painted with puffy white clouds … (Photo: Marc Levy) -
… ladles and cutting boards … (Photo: Marc Levy) -
… and some themed assortments. (Photo: Marc Levy) -
One of the whimsical ways Glass Ripples displays its goods: inside a vintage fridge. (Photo: Marc Levy)
There’s colorful flatware, matchbooks, a few framed artworks, a nice selection of vintage glassware and some sweet little ceramic pony necklaces. Over by the sales counter, there’s a small selection of cards, magnets, hair clips and other miscellaneous items. Glass Ripples will wrap your purchase for free in colored paper, or you can buy a sheet of “Artist’s Illustration” paper for $2 and staff will use that. The store holds workshops where you can learn to make your own glass creations; when Wu opens a second, bigger store in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner this fall, the classes move there. I admire her for starting a second shop – it’s hard enough to run one! But lucky us, we’ll have the original, right outside of Davis Square.
Glass Ripples, 200 Elm St., North Cambridge near Davis Square (noon to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays)
