What's an Avatar?

To represent myself on the Etsy site I needed an "Avatar" I had no idea what an "Avatar" was so I did some research and this is what I found...

In Hindu mythology, an avatar is a deity that has taken on an earthly form, most often that of a human, in order to bring higher consciousness to the earth that the Hindu gods created. As humans create virtual worlds, it could be said that the computer avatar represents human incarnation into its own creation. Religious affiliations aside, the computer avatar holds a user's rich and conceptual representation of himself/herself by using a two-dimensional picture on Internet forums and communities like Etsy.

...so I needed to represent myself to the cyberspace world in a 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch square.

Okay, this is a challenge; how do I show the 'world' who I am in less than one inch? I could display my picture or maybe a piece of my jewelry? I found free Avatars on the internet, everything from snugly puppies to warrior princesses, maybe I should use one of those? No, I think it needs to be unique...maybe something that has my shop name...this is a bigger decision than I originally thought.