The basic chemistry and preparation of amino, and phenohc resins is covered extensively in the literature. To make water soluble or water miscible versions of these polymers most activity has concentrated on using the lower molecular weight polymers which are etherified with the lower alcohols (methanol and ethanol).
With phenolic resins there are some acid containing phenols available, e. g. salicylic acid, diphenolic acid, etc. These will react with formaldehyde and can, therefore, be incorporated into the phenolic resin to give water solubility.