A polysiloxane precursor to silicon dioxide was used to generate silica patterns on a flat surface. The conversion of a thin film of this polymer to silica was done either by photolithography or by printing an organic acid on the film. The former technique allowed the formation of structures with thickness as large as 2 mu m. The latter method could generate patterns with sub-micron resolution and thicknesses smaller than 0.2 mu m. These structures could be used as resists for O-2 reactive ion etching (RIE).