finish
I dont know if this will help you since I have only made a few pendants for my girls, but here is what I did.
I tried CA and they came out great but it was too labor intensive for a pendant.
Then I tried dipping the pendants in fast drying poly, it was easy and it worked pretty well. What it didnt do was fill in any grain irregularities no matter how many times I dipped them. So I tried sanding them a bit, but the poly was still soft even after a couple of days. This could have been because it was during some humid summer days.
So to fill in the grain I tried some CA and sanding. This worked well until I dipped it in the poly and the finish became splotchy where I had sanded thru the CA. Interesting affect but not what I was looking for.
If I make any more I will try a spray on finish.
Good luck