SEATTLE — Juliet Sykes watched teary-eyed as glass workers began to shape a small white heart.

Glowing orange tanks full of melted glass at 2,300 degrees lined the back wall, while reheating stations with steel tools and buckets of cold water dotted the workshop. Sykes stood upstairs in the gallery, taking it all in.

Before the ball of glass was formed into a solid heart with swirls of color and glitter, an artist rolled it across a tablespoon of ash — the ashes of Sykes’ great grandmother Dorothy “Nanny” Walker, who died in 1998.

“It is just so beautiful,” Sykes said as sparks jumped off a cold steel blade as it touched the burning-hot glass. “I love the sparks — that is Nanny saying, ‘I’m here.’”

Whether it is a glass heart or a diamond ring or a reef off the coast of Florida, people are finding new ways to memorialize the life of their departed loved ones who chose cremation. And what better way to do that in a city known for its glasswork than with glass hearts, thought Greg and Christina Dale, of Sammamish, Wash.

In the 18 months since starting Artful Ashes in 2012, the Dales have gone from 10 memorials a month to more than 200. By contracting with Glass Eye Studio in Ballard, Wash., they have the capacity to make 110 a day, said Christina Dale.

From 2002 to 2012, the cremation rate in the United States increased from 28 percent to 44 percent, according to the most recent date from the Cremation Association of North America.

“It is closure for a lot of people while also giving them something that fits perfectly in their hands,” Christina, 49, said. “It is not a paperweight and we designed it not to be on purpose.”

Lisa Suchsland heard about Artful Ashes through a friend and decided to make a heart in honor of her father, who died two years ago.

“There really could not be anything more beautiful and personal to me than to have a heart made with his ashes,” said Suchsland, who has her own business painting portraits of lost pets for grieving owners. “It is nice to have a place to go, a cemetery or a mausoleum, but it is also nice to have something to hold.”

People are realizing they have more options to personalize a memorial tribute, said Barbara Kemmis, CANA executive director. “Ten years ago you had three choices … scatter remains, buy an urn and keep it in your house, or buy an urn and put it in a cemetery. But what gets more personalized than art?”

The idea for Artful Ashes came out of a close call with Greg Dale’s father. He lives in Miami and went to the hospital for surgery in 2012. He researched end-of-life options, just to be prepared.

“He was like … ‘Did you know you could be buried in a reef or made into a ring or shot into outer space?’” Christina Dale said. “Luckily his dad pulled through, but the whole thing just got us thinking.”

Just a few months later, Greg visited a Made in Washington store that carries Glass Eye Studio’s glass heart paperweights. He approached the studio owners with his idea of incorporating a small amount of cremated ashes into the colorful hearts and they liked the idea, so the business was formed.

Susan and Ted Smith, who bought Glass Eye Studio in November, said they were happy to continue the partnership and gave the couple an office at the studio. Glass Eye employees make the memorials, and the Dales buy them from the studio at wholesale prices, much like how the Made in Washington stores purchase the paperweights, Greg said. Artful Ashes then sells both the hearts and globes to customers for $185.

“They are almost like funeral directors,” said Ted Smith. “The product is just a piece of what they do for these people. … I am always seeing people leave with a smile even during such a sad time.”

It had been more than 15 years since Nanny was cremated, but when Juliet Sykes saw one of Artful Ashes hearts on Facebook, she said she had to have one.

“Not being able to be there the night she passed away … this just made up for it tenfold,” Sykes told the Dales after her white heart memorial was set in the cooling rack. “I just wish Granddad had been cremated, too, so they could be together.”