Singer Alicia Keys hopes to inspire with jewelry line

Singer Alicia Keys has won over fans with her music but now the Grammy-winning R&B star is hoping to uplift them by launching her own jewelry collection inscribed with inspirational messages.

Keys has teamed up with Canadian designer Gisele Theriault in a jewelry line called "The Barber's Daughters" which features silver and gemstone pieces with quotes and poetry from iconic figures such as Gandhi, Buddha and Shakespeare.

One of the items, a sterling silver cuff, is inscribed with words of wisdom from the woman herself.

"There's a gorgeous cuff, it's so beautiful, and it says 'I am a superwoman!'," laughed Keys after launching the collection in New York this week although it does not go on sale until 2010.

Keys, 28, said as a songwriter, the progression from putting words with music, to inscribing jewelry, seemed natural.

"As a lyricist I love words and I love things that kind of ... hit you so hard to the heart," Keys told Reuters Television.

"I realised that this was another way to reach out to people and to really bring them inspiration in some way. If people tell me how much they love my music because it's gotten them though a certain time in their life, I felt like this was an extension of music."

The jewelry line is being sold through the Collette Blanchard Gallery in a temporary "pop-up" shop on Manhattan's lower east side. The pieces range from necklaces and earrings, to watches, cuffs and bracelets and are priced from $85 to $2,500.

"My favourite part about them was not only were they individual, one of a kind, something you would really cherish and hold but the words on them affected me so personally, they uplifted me, it made me feel good, want to hold it and wear it like a mantra," Keys said.

Keys is set to release her new studio album, "The Element of Freedom," on Dec. 15.

Theriault has said the name of the jewelry line emanates from growing up in the small coastal town of Cape Breton in Canada, where a name meant nothing and whose child you were meant everything.