SAVANNAH, Georgia — Dana Theobald sings Taylor Swift music while meticulously placing hundreds of lavender and purple rhinestones on a wooden frame engraved with “Taylor Swift The Eras Tour.”
The TikTok sensation created a model version of Singapore's National Stadium, which Swift sold out for six nights.
Lyrics from “Long Live” shine in cursive letters along the rim. One of the lines, “Remember this feeling,” is in the center. It's a sentiment Theobald reminds herself of frequently.
“I’m learning how to be present in the moment and not stress over being perfect,” the 30-year-old says. “I’m just trying to have fun. The concerts are an escape for a lot of people. For some of us, it’s one of the best nights of our lives.”
The paint and glue will take hours to dry. Theobald will set up her camera, remove the masking tape and unveil her 21st finished wooden replica of an Eras Tour stadium to the TikTok world she’s taken by storm.
“Before I was making the Eras pieces, I was making sports stadiums,” she says. Her smile shines between each sentence, and she giggles when talking about two of her passions. “I love sports, and I’m also a very big Taylor Swift fan.”
The artist grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts, and went to Boston University to play basketball before transferring to Savannah College of Art and Design. She fell in love with building models, woodworking and studying interior design and architecture. During the pandemic, she invested in herself and bought a laser printer.
“I started building wooden maps of cities,” she says.
Her work table is replete with dents, paint splatters and polish drippings. Organized along the back wall are jars of rhinestones, cans holding paint brushes and shelves holding 100 paint bottles.
“In 2020, my best friend asked me if I could make a Kansas City stadium for her husband and I said I would try,” she says. "It kind of just took off from there.”
Although she has completed many wooden replicas of college and professional stadiums, rugby fields and soccer pitches, she brought her craft into a whole new era — by happenstance — in 2023.
“With the Eras Tour coming to Gillette Stadium this weekend, I decided to make an art piece to pay off my pricey ticket,” she posted on TikTok. The video showed her constructing a replica of the Foxborough, Massachusetts, venue to Swift’s opening number. More than 6 million have seen it.
Mission accomplished. A fan in Boston bought the piece, and yes, it paid for her seat. Theobald and her mom watched Swift in the pouring rain.
Commenters asked her to do the tour’s next stop: MetLife Stadium… and then Soldier Field… and then Ford Field.
Twenty-one stadiums later, she is determined to replicate every sold-out venue and has the process down to a science. She starts with images from Google Earth and traces rows of seats over the complex images. The drawings take a couple of days. From there, she cuts the pieces on her laser printer and stains each panel before grabbing the wood glue and constructing a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
The videos are mesmerizing, and viewers can see how incredibly patient — like insanely patient — Theobald is with her creations.
“The planning takes the most mental power,” she says. “The building part is less time consuming, although I have to wait for everything to dry.”
Each frame is painted in the era or aesthetic that the crafter thinks best represents the country or city. She customized Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City Chiefs colors and added the engraving, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me,” as a shoutout to Swift’s lyric change for boyfriend and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“I like following the tour and seeing how different cultures come together and celebrate their love for Taylor Swift,” Theobald says. She only creates one piece per stop. Interested buyers can email her for prices. There are two still available: Estadio Mâs Monumental in Argentina and Soldier Field in Chicago.
Swift heads to Paris on May 9 and will perform her record-shattering tour in 23 stadiums. But the number of stadiums left doesn’t stress Theobald out.
“I try not to get overwhelmed with how much there is because at the end of the day, this is supposed to be fun and it brings me so much joy,” she says.
Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, onInstagram,TikTokandX as @BryanWestTV.
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