Founder Story

Meet Homer H. Hillis

For more than 40 years, Homer H. Hillis Jr. has built businesses, followed unusual opportunities and collected more stories—and jewelry parts—than most people could fit into a lifetime.

Long before HHH Designs became home to a warehouse full of jewelry components, Homer helped build Friendze into a highly successful chain of retail stores across Texas. At its peak, Friendze operated multiple locations and introduced countless customers to beads, jewelry-making supplies and the satisfaction of creating something themselves.

Homer’s business adventures have taken plenty of unexpected turns. He has designed and manufactured jewelry, traveled in search of new products, watched styles disappear and return, accumulated thousands of rare and discontinued pieces—and even found himself involved in a lawsuit over a spider bite. There has rarely been a dull chapter.

Now in his 60s, Homer still has decades of knowledge, merchandise and stories to share. That eventually inspired Hangin’ with Homer, a podcast where he talks about business, history, local happenings and the strange experiences he has collected along the way.

Today, HHH Designs carries on the creative spirit behind Friendze. Homer’s warehouse contains everything from bolo and buckle parts to charms, chains, findings, vintage deadstock and finished jewelry. Some pieces have been stored since the early 1990s, and many are no longer manufactured or available anywhere else.

Whether you are shopping for one special component or enough inventory to start your own collection, you are not simply browsing another supply catalog—you are digging through more than four decades of Homer’s treasures.