Jargon

Sometimes I feel like I'm in the military with all the acronyms my bead pals and I throw around. "Put the PMC in the LOS while you work on SEO." Lampwork alone has its own language: punty, mandrel, stringer, frit, boro, anneal, shocky, twisty, quench, oxy-con, reduction, raking, mini CC, wonky, gather, lentil, strike, encase, scummy.

Another thing I learned about lampwork is there's a drug counter-culture in the glassworking community; "tweeker" is another term I have learned. It's slang for a crystal meth junkie who uses a hand-blown glass pipe in getting high. Ewww! And I thought glasswork was all beads and vases...