WHY NOBODY ENDS IT
Ending it requires somebody to be the one who asks.
Almost every agreement we looked at ends because a party ends it. One side gives notice, the other acknowledges. Consignment fails exactly there, and not for any reason either party would defend.
no end
Nobody is refusing. Nobody has asked. Month fourteen arrives on its own.
lapses
Custody reverts because the agreement expired, not because it was granted back.
The shop is not refusing
Nobody has asked for the work back. The shop has not decided to keep it. The arrangement is simply still running because nothing stopped it.
Asking costs more than the goods
A maker who asks for unsold work back is telling a shop the placement failed. That conversation risks the next placement, so it does not happen.
Responsibility fades quietly
At month two a broken piece is obviously the shop's problem. At month fourteen nobody is sure, and there is no document that says when it changed.
The paperwork arrives at the wrong moment
A contract is easy to sign at the end and impossible at the beginning, when thirty pieces between friends does not seem to warrant one.