I can see where you were headed here, and as an abstract macro it's fun to look at and figure out what's going on. However in a shadows challenge, it just won't cut it. The composition and lighting are ok (and your shoot notes made me laugh, I've often used similar home-brewed setups in the past). I think you could have taken this idea a little further and kept in mind that shadows (the more obvious the better) are what goes over well here.
Hope this critique has been useful, feel free to PM me with any questions.
Sorry, but I have no clue what I am looking at. It isn't interesting, it isn't eye-candy. I see nothing that I can identify as "shadows". There may possibly BE shadows, but you failed to communicate this to me (and I really did try to make sense of this thing). 4.