First, when my beads are almost perfect, I take a make up brush dipped in corn starch then brushed on my hands for a final shaping to make the beads as smooth as possible before baking.
After baking I use a Raytech Tumble-Vibe vibrating tumbler to sand my beads (purchased for approx $150 on Hayneedle.com). Rotary tumblers are cheaper but take weeks to smooth as compared to vibrating tumblers with take only 1-2 hrs. Be sure to purchase a 'wet media' tumbler. I use regular rock tumbling 'grit'. Usually in approx 3 stages. Then they are ready for buffing to a high gloss shine with a buffing wheel. The buffer I bought at Harbor Freight.
If I want a soft buff to the beads I do the following. Or this can be done as a pre-cursor to the buffing wheel.
I cut up a pair of light colored denim. Cut from just above the knee up almost to the crotch area and left and right all the way to the seams, but don't include the seams. Cut out these areas, front and back on both legs so you have 4 pieces of cloth. Two tumbling bowls come with the unit. Grit can be left behind even after rinsing so I dedicated one bowl for sanding and 1 for buffing. They are shaped similar to a bundt pan with a cone coming up the center. Cut a 2" lengthwise slit in the very center of your denim piece. Place your denim piece over the tumbler bowl, placing the slit over the center cone. Lengthen the slit in your denim if needed. Press your denim down to line the bowl of the tumbler overlapping and folding as needed. Don't worry about any excess fabric at the top of the bowl you will gently fold that down to the outside and lightly press the tumbler lid in place. The beads will rotate in the tumbler, in essence buffing themselves on the denim. If I have a large amount to do, I will lightly press another layer of denim fabric over the first. Leave space between the top of the first layer of beads and the next layer of fabric. You don't want to restrict the movement of the beads. I have done 3 layers of beads at one time.
These beads in my shop along with the other loose beads were sanded in the tumbler then buffed in the tumbler with the denim. I chose not to go glossy.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/111732184/strawberries-n-cream-faux-lampwork-beads?ref=v1_other_2I definitely recommend this method. If all you did was use the tumbler for sanding, it is definitely a time saver. Plus the grit gets into nooks and crannies that hand sanding can't.
I hope this helps.
