Step 8A new approach....
iImage Information

Instead of a circle, I tried a bar for attaching the EL wires, thinking it would be easier to balance a straight bar rather than a circle (hexagon). It did seem to work better, especially with a heavily weighted bottom bar, but there was still a problem with instability at higher speeds. At low speeds, though, there was a nice "concentric column" effect that seemed pretty stable. I still need to figure out some way of rigidly attaching the motor -- I think that would help with the instability