Water etching is a way of achieving very subtle and controlled texture on porcelain.

I start with a "bone dry", unfired porcelain vessel which I have thrown on my potter's wheel. A design is painted onto the vessel with a "resist", usually shellac or wax. Using a clean wet sponge, the raw clay is wiped away from the surface of the vessel. The clay protected by the resist remains in place. The piece is left until it is bone dry again, then a second layer of resist is applied and the process repeated, and so on, until the desired design is achieved. Some works can have up to 9 layers. This is a very delicate process as alternating between bone dry and wet porcelain often causes the clay to crack or to break through completely.