Cilia in color

I applied a the Phong shader to the cilia to give them a slick coat and used a ramp procedural map for a delicate color gradient; I wanted the gradient to radiate from the base of the cilia to the tip but instead the gradient appeared across the ciliated plane...not sure how to correct this. Like Sara, I used the occlusion render as a mask in Photoshop to darken the shadows between the cilia and to add a cooler cast to the scene. I enjoyed playing with the shader attributes, but I wonder if there is a way to save the settings or apply them to a different object in the scene?