Making someone else’s project in order to learn a new skill or technique seems like a good idea in the beginning. After all, the skill or idea I’m trying to learn is difficult enough so, to reduce the number of parts, I’ll focus on copying the steps rather than also having to invent my own idea to before I begin.
The problem I have with this approach is that I don’t find it very ‘sticky’ or motivating. I have much more success in learning new skills when they come from an idea or a project I’m trying to make but I don’t yet have the skills to make it. I then go looking for the skills to help me execute my vision.
When it’s my vision, the purpose or drive to make comes from within and what I end up with at the end of all that hard work is a thing I made for me, not a copy of someone else’s thing.